PINTS were being pulled as normal at the popular Farmer’s Boy watering hole on the A40 at Longhope only a day after part of the building was gutted by fire.

Firefighting crews from Newent, Cinderford and Ross were called to the pub on Thursday morning last week when a blaze ripped through the roof of a rear extension.

The fire was soon brought under control although the rear roof section was estimated to have suffered 75 per cent fire damage the rest of the building suffering 50 per cent smoke damage.

However, licensee Phil Kiernan and his staff of 15 went straight into mopping up mode and it was business, almost as normal, by 4pm the following day.

“The staff have been absolutely fantastic, volunteering to work on their days off to help,” said Phil. “That’s when you know you’ve got a great team.

“We had a plumber, an electrician and Severn Trent in to make sure the electricity and water were safe and we also had the beer checked out.

“We’ve also had a brilliant response from our many regular customers and on Saturday night all eight of our bedrooms were full.

“I am now looking at this as an opportunity and we plan to redecorate completely. Work has already started.”