Two fires claimed £1million worth of caravans and a £45,000 speed boat yesterday (December 18).

A blaze broke out at motor home business Marquis in Golden Cross near Hailsham just before 5am.

About 20 motor homes and caravans were devastated in the blaze, some of which were Christmas presents waiting to be collected.

Commercial director, Graham Davidson-Bowman, said: “Some are just sitting on the ground, there’s no body left just metal framework.

“Others are so damaged they will have to be written off.”

He said the business, which has nine other sites across the country, would replace the lost vehicles, worth up to £50,000 each.

Mr Davidson-Bowman said: “The fire was just consuming everything in its path, it’s totally devastating.”

Signal for help

The cause of the fire is being investigated.

Later that morning a hobby fisherman was rescued from his ablaze motor boat south of Beachy Head.

The fire stopped the one man on board the 26 foot boat called Knowwanda from getting to his radio to call for help.

Luckily he had flares on hand to signal for help.

The man was rescued and taken to hospital. His boat, which is kept at Eastbourne Marina, was towed to the beach, where the blaze was put out by fire crews.

RNLI spokesman Bob Jeffery said the boat was now a “complete wreck”.

He added: “It is lucky he had flares available – they saved his life.

“He didn’t have a life raft on board, he was at the mercy of the elements, but luckily people saw the flares that he fired off and disaster was averted.”

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