A Norfolk businessman praised fire-fighters whose swift actions saved his entire workshop from complete destruction in a major blaze.
Hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of damage have been caused to Jamie Everett's two business, Norfolk Oak and Naked Kitchens, at the former RAF West Raynham site, near Fakenham.
Mr Everett, 48, moved his businesses there from Anmer Hall, on the Sandringham Estate, in October, where Prince William, Kate Middleton and their son George, are reported to be moving to.
Fire fighters were called to the scene at around 4.50am yesterday.
Mr Everett said: 'The cause of the fire is a complete mystery but I have to say the fire brigade has been absolutely fantastic.
'The entire workshop was filled with smoke and they got here in sweet time and managed to get the fire under control very quickly.
'There is £2m worth of machinery in there and I don't know the full extent of the damage yet but it must run into hundreds of thousands of pounds.
'If the fire fighters had got here just a few minutes later the whole place could have gone, so the situation could have been a lot worse.'
Mr Everett's workshop is based in a hangar and he said its size and shape saved it.
He said: 'Fortunately there is a lot of space in the building which made it difficult for the fire to take hold of one particular area.'
Norfolk Oak was established eight years ago and employs 15 people.
Mr Everett set up Naked Kitchens, which has 10 staff, 18 months ago.
Mr Everett, who lives in Cley, on the north Norfolk coast, said the businesses are still operating and praised his employees who carried on working yesterday,
He said: 'Everyone has been working hard and gone into salvage mode to get us back up and running.
'Everything had been going very well for us since we moved here in October.
'We're working hard to move on from this and I expect us to be fully operational again within two weeks.'
Appliances from Massingham, Fakenham, Sandringham and King's Lynn used main and hose reel jets to fight the fire.
The Fakenham water carrier was also in use.
Investigations into the cause of the fire are continuing.
Did you see the fire? E mail adam.lazzari@archant.co.uk
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