A BUSINESSMAN is devastated after a fire broke out at his company.

John Scott, owner of Sourdust Pottery in Stocksfield was devastated to learn that a part of his business has been burned to the ground.

The blaze occured around 2am this morning (Friday, November 3) while John was away at a show.

John started his business in 1991 at the age of nineteen, after training with Nexus Design and then his reputation grew from there.

Speaking about the fire, he said: "I'm devastated. The fire was my Raku shelter, which is a fundamental part of my business, and it is destroyed all my kilns and equipment.

"The raku side of my business has been the last 25 years.

"It is a process where I fire my very quickly in a gas kiln when the desai have temperature is reached I take my pots out and reduce them in newspaper and give me some beautiful results.

"As the shelter is a fundamental part of my business and I’ve just lost 25 years’ worth of equipment and materials that I’ve built up.

"I’m away at a show which makes it even worse.

"I only heard about the incident when CK hair design, who also have a business there, phoned me this morning saying there had been explosion at my workshop.

"Where the fire started there are no combustible materials, so it could have been a rogue firework, but I don’t know for sure."

David Wood, a resident in Stocksfield who saw the flames said: "I heard two loud explosions and saw there was a large orange light in the sky.

"I saw that a building to the rear of Sourdust Pottery in Stocksfield was well alight.

"[I watched the] Fire and Rescue service attend to put it out.

"[I think] the flames were about 10 metres high."

A NFRS spokesperson said: "We were called out to an incident at 2:27am last night after receiving calls of a primary fire and deployed one appliance from Prudhoe and two from Hexham.

"We used two hose reels, one main jet, and four sets of breathing apparatus."

Police also attended the incident.