80 cars burnt out at Boomtown festival due to a fire started ‘by a cigarette’

A fire destroyed up to 80 cars at Boomtown Festival this Friday, after a blaze was started ‘by a cigarette’, according to organisers.

The camp was evacuated but nobody was injured in the incident.

Although the festival organizers are yet to release an official statement until the cause has been investigated, they believe the fire started due to a cigarette being dropped onto the dry grass, ultimately resulting in a fire fanned by high winds.

At the time Boomtown issued a form to fill out which listed their registration, email address, contact information, passenger details and where it was parked, and had also offered to pay for transportation.

Josh Oram lost an Audi S3 in the flames on Friday, he said: “No one spoke to me, they just made me fill out a form, then offered to pay for my transport.

“I had no idea what was going on. I’m a bit of a car enthusiast as well and I had put a lot of time and money into my Audi so I was devastated.”

Josh’s car post fire

Spokeswoman Anna Wade said the main concern was that “anyone affected is safely and swiftly able to get home”. She said festivalgoers had been helped to identify their cars and assist, make travel arrangements and contact insurers during the weekend.

Steve Foye of Hampshire Fire and Rescue said it had been a “significant fire which developed very rapidly” in the stubble field.

“The crews responded very fast in preventing the fire spreading to the campsite area and stop it spreading to the large number of other cars in the car park. At this time of year the ground is much drier – we need people to think about how they behave and don’t drop cigarettes.”