A pair of paddleboarders were woken to the sight of a blazing inferno as a fire raged just 80cm from where they were sleeping.
Two of the team at GOForth.surf, based within Park Foot Caravan and Camping Park on the shores of Ullswater, awoke to find the fire raging in the early hours.
It followed two other incidents in the days before which saw a fire started on a bench and an attempt to steal a car.
“It was about three o’clock in the morning and staff who were staying on site for the summer at the paddleboarding centre saw equipment on fire,” said owner of GOForth.surf, 48-year-old John Stamp.
“The fire was set within 80cm of somebody’s head. The fire went up and it must’ve been a petrol fire, it escalated quite quickly. It was quite insidious, it went up within minutes, that was the shocking thing about it. Campers who were 50 feet away said they could feel the heat in their tents.”
GOForth.surf, which runs as a joint venture with Park Foot Campsite, started operating in June and had been averaging five or six lessons every day, each containing groups of six.
There were only two people in the immediate vicinity of the blaze, who woke up in time to escape the flames.
“If the boys had had a beer and were in a deep sleep it would have been really serious, it would have been a fatal attack,” said John.
“It’s been a bit of a shock. We’ve ended for the summer. We were supposed to end next week after such a brilliant July, and August which wasn’t great weather-wise but it was still great fun. It’s such a disappointing and shocking end to the summer.”
The events in Ullswater are not commonplace in the area.
“Everybody has been saying they have never heard about anything like this, everyone is so shocked,” said John.
“Everybody has been so supportive, even the other paddleboarding sites.
“The support has been beautiful, it has made us want to come back. All of the messages on Facebook made us realise the impact we’ve had in a short space of time.
“I wanted to say a thank you to the park operators for offering boards so we could get running again and not be put off. We are very touched.”
A spokeswoman for Cumbria Constabulary said: “Police were called at around 3.30am on August 19 to the report of arson at Park Foot Caravan and Camping Park.
“During the incident, unknown persons have set light to a power boat and caused damage to paddleboards nearby.”
Police are appealing for anyone with information to report online at www.cumbria.police.uk/reportit
