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HOPES are rising that gamekeeper Michael Montero will make a full recovery after being horrifically injured in a gas explosion near Beaminster.

Mr Montero, 43, suffered first degree burns to 75 per cent of his body in a fire at pheasant-rearing huts on the Mapperton estate last month, where he is head gamekeeper.

He is being treated in the specialist burns unit at Swansea's Morriston Hospital.

Mr Montero has already undergone some operations and was put into an induced coma to cope with the pain while his body heals.

His wife Jenny was helping him at the time of the accident and sustained superficial burns to her face and hands, but was discharged from hospital about a week later.

Mr Montero had worked on the Mapperton estate, owned by the Earl and Countess of Sandwich, for nearly 20 years.

Yesterday the Earl, John Montagu, said: "The hospital is cautiously expecting a full recovery, which is about as good as we can hope for."

He said Mr Montero had not yet been brought permanently out of the induced coma, but that confidence in his recovery had returned.

"It will take months and, of course, he may not be back with us for quite some time.

"We have a bulletin that we put up outside the café here every week and this is the first positive one," he added.

The pheasant shoot is a major source of income, both for the estate and nearby hotels that accommodate the shooting parties.

The Earl said this would go ahead as normal, with assistant keepers taking on the work and friends of the shoot rallying round.

Mr Montero was checking one of the pheasant-rearing huts, where it is believed he thought there may have been a faulty connection in one of the gas canisters used to heat them, at the time of the fire.

Its cause is being investigated by the Health and Safety Executive.

1:17pm Friday 18th July 2008

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