BROUGHTON Gifford farmer Andrew Keen is still in hospital after a fire broke out on his land on Sunday. Neighbours reported finding him covered in flames.

Mr Keen, 52, a contractor and landscape gardener, was rushed to Southmead Hospital, Bristol, after ambulance crews were called to the fire on his one-acre plot of land in Norrington Lane at 6.45pm.

It is understood Mr Keen, who has three sons and has lived in the Melksham area all his life, was initially put into an induced coma for treatment to his burns.

Yesterday (Thursday) Mr Keen’s cousin Rodney Mortimer, of Leechpool Farm, Norrington Lane, said: “He has had an operation on his hands, face and head and is now in a stable condition in Southmead Hospital.”

Eyewitness David Wyatt, who was staying with a friend on a neighbouring farm when the fire started, said: “We heard a noise and then 10 minutes later there was an enormous inferno.

“It was like a mushroom cloud. I do not know what went off but there were gas canisters going off in the barn, you could hear them. It was absolute chaos.

“Then I saw him on fire and it was just sheer panic.

“We ran up to him. He was just sat there, burned.

“He was just looking at me like it was nothing. I cannot describe it. It was like he was looking at me but looking through me.”

The fire is believed to have begun in a caravan inside the barn where Mr Keen was living and engulfed the 500 tons of hay, farm machinery and vehicles as well as a diesel tank which was also under the barn roof.

Seven fire crews were sent to the scene. They had the blaze under control by 8.30pm, with relief crews called throughout the night and still on duty the following morning.

Mr Wyatt added: “He was just sitting there. There was no response. He did not say a thing, he just cried.

“I remember thinking, there must be people there and that I would expect that someone would turn up.

“It was me being nosey that made me go down there to have a look. It was some 15 minutes until the fire brigade arrived.

“It was a terrible thing to see. It would affect anyone. It all just happened so quick.”

Mr Keen, who once lived at Shurnhold Farm, Melksham, originally bought a 27-acre plot of land off Norrington Lane 10 years ago but it is understood he has since has sold all but one acre, where he constructed the barn. He was living in a caravan parked inside the barn, which was damaged by the fire.

Fire crews from Melksham, Corsham, Bath and Trowbridge were involved in tackling the blaze. By 2.30pm on Monday they had almost entirely extinguished the fire and were dampening down fire hotspots in the hay.

This week Wiltshire Fire Service said they could not comment on the cause of the blaze until they had been able to assess the damage at the barn.