'Accidental' cause of large farm barn fire near Telford

Six Shropshire Fire and Rescue crews from across the county attended the blaze that broke out yesterday afternoon at Tern Farm in Longdon upon Tern, and were expecting to be at the scene for most of the day.

Scott Bishop, fire investigation officer, said: "When the crews arrived the three barns were well alight and firefighters worked quickly to get the blaze under control.

"They worked closely with the owners and staff who used their machinery to help move debris and allow the crews to do their job tackling the flames.

"We carried out a full fire investigation and found the incident was caused by a fire the staff were using to burn wood from the land.

"This had gotten out of control and spread to the nearby crates due to the strong winds, and then continued to spread to the buildings.

"We are expecting to have a presence at the site for the remainder of today to ensure the fire is completely out and the area is safe."

The major blaze saw teams of firefighters drafted in from Bridgnorth, Craven Arms, Newport, Shrewsbury, Telford Central and Wellington.

Firefighters were called at 2.28pm to a large fire involving three large barns containing grain, potatoes and machinery, also fire involving large quantity of baled straw in farm yard.

Thursday afternoon and evening was a busy one for Shropshire Fire & Rescue Crews around the county as they were scrambled to a range of incidents including a crash on the M54 and a car fire in Telford.

While the response to that incident on Thursday was ongoing there was another report, at 5.58pm, of a fire at Leamoor Common, near Craven Arms.

One fire appliance was scrambled from Church Stretton, and an operations officer was in attendance. They found a blaze involving three outbuildings. Crews used one hose reel, one main jet and two sets of breathing apparatus to extinguish the blaze.

That incident was considered over at 7.19pm.

Minutes later, at 7.23pm, reports were received about a crash where a person was trapped on the eastbound M54 at Junction 3 near Cosford.

Two fire engines were mobilised from Albrighton and Hodnet but on when they arrived nobody was left in the car. Crews made the vehicle safe and declared a stop to the incident at 7.40pm.

Incidents continued overnight with a call to a flood affecting electrics at Belmont Bank, in Shrewsbury, at 11.07pm, as well as false alarms in Shrewsbury and Telford.

There was also a car fire in Briarwood, in the Brookside area of Telford, at 11.38pm. One fire appliance and an investigation officer were mobilised from Telford Central fire station. The cause of the blaze has not yet been confirmed.

They found a private saloon car on fire and used one hose-reel jet, with two fire-fighters using breathing kit, to put out the blaze. They declared that the incident was stopped a few seconds from midnight.