Owners of burned-down Nutshells café in Stowupland thank public for support

The owners of a village café destroyed in a blaze yesterday have issued a statement thanking the public and emergency services for their support.

A major incident was declared at the Nutshells Tea Room in Stowupland around 9.54am on January 29, after a fire broke out on the café's premises.

Despite the efforts of emergency responders from across Suffolk, the building was destroyed - although nobody was harmed.

The owners of the café put out a statement via Facebook, expressing their sadness and thanking the fire service and local public for their messages of goodwill.

The statement reads: "As many of you have now heard, today there was a fire at Nutshells. Thankfully, only Jill & Ian were in the building at the time and they quickly left, meaning everyone is safe.

"Fortunately, thanks to the best efforts of over 24 fire vehicles, the fire did not spread to any nearby buildings, some of which are only meters away.

"However despite this, the whole of the Nutshells building was sadly lost to the blaze. At the time of writing, it sadly looks like the remaining structure is not safe and will have to be demolished. Emergency services will continue to monitor the building overnight.

"Understandably, Nutshells will be closed for the foreseeable future, while we try to assess the damage and rebuild from this.

"Thank you all for your kind comments and thoughts and a special thank you to the emergency services who have spent all day tackling the blaze.

"We look forward to welcoming you all back to Nutshells as soon as we can do."