A BRAVE family were last night left heartbroken after desperately attempting to save much loved pets caught in a devastating blaze on a Suffolk farm.A number of pet ferrets were killed when a detached building was completely gutted by fire which started close to a children's nursery and stable block.

A BRAVE family were last night left heartbroken after desperately attempting to save much loved pets caught in a devastating blaze on a Suffolk farm.

A number of pet ferrets were killed when a detached building was completely gutted by fire which started close to a children's nursery and stable block.

Firefighters battled the blaze for more than three hours at Little Cornard, near Sudbury - the second to hit Yorley Farm in just three years.

Anne Johnson, who runs the on-site Little Cornard Nursery, last night relived seeing her husband, Clive, and brother-in-law, Martin, bravely attempt to put out the flames.

She said: “The first thing we knew about the fire was when the electricity went off.

“I went outside to see my husband and my brother-in-law fighting the fire. They were trying to put it out with a fire extinguisher but it was totally out of control.

“They were desperately trying to save the ferrets and they really got into the flames but it was just too fierce.

“My father-in-law Edward had his whole life in that shed - including about 20 ferrets. He is very upset as they were his lifelong passion and he treated them just like family pets.”

The children from the nursery remained on the farm as retained firefighters from Sudbury, Long Melford and Nayland, tackled the fire, which started just after 11am.

At one stage, the efforts of the firefighters was halted when electricity cables close to the farm came crashing down and were lying in water.

Incident commander, ADO Pat Dacey, said: “The fire was at a small agricultural hamlet containing a mix of domestic and agricultural buildings.

“The source of the fire was in an agricultural building which had been virtually destroyed before firecrews had arrived.

“All we could do in terms of intervention was to prevent the fire spreading to other buildings as there were potential problems with horses.

“We had difficulties with water supplies, which you expect in such isolated areas, but all credit to the crews who got this established very quickly.”

ADO Dacey also paid tribute to the retained crews who were forced to leave their daily jobs at a moment's notice.