POLICE are looking into four rural fires in the Dorchester and Sherborne area.

A trailer of straw was burnt sometime after 9am on Wednesday in Wanchard Lane in Charminster before the barn fire happened at Lower Burton at 7.30pm.

Then, also on Wednesday at about 9.20pm, police received a report of a third fire involving two bales of hay at the South West Business Park in Sherborne.

Then yesterday at around 3.30am hay and manure was believed by firefighters to have been set on fire at Cokers Farm near Frome Whitfield.

Detective Inspector Stewart Dipple, of CID in Weymouth, said nobody was injured.

He said: “We are working closely with fire investigators from Dorset Fire and Rescue Service to establish the cause of the fires, whether there is any evidence to suggest they were started deliberately and whether they are linked.”

Inspector Les Fry, neighbourhood Inspector for Dorchester and Sherborne, said: “The cost to the farmers is significant and the inconvenience at the loss of machinery and winter feedstuffs considerable.

“With our Operation Countryside we are co-ordinating our work to protect the rural community and work with people to make life considerably harder for criminals.”

Any witnesses or anyone with information can call Dorset Police on 01305 222222.