Firefighters battled through storms to tackle 'severe' bungalow blaze near Oswestry
Firefighters had to fight through a raging storm to get to a bungalow on fire in remote countryside.
Crews from Shropshire and Wales were faced with trees across the road and even a mini landslide as they responded to 999 calls to the blaze at Sychtyn in the hills outside Oswestry.
Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service revealed that the alarm was only raised because smoke detectors fitted by the service 18 months ago, alerted neighbours.
The occupants of the bungalow were not at home when the fire broke out on Thursday morning.
Malcolm Stephenson of Shropshire Fire and Rescue said: "Thankfully we had fitted three smoke alarms in the property after a previous severe fire in the area. It is such a remote part of the county that we took steps to ensure everything we could do was done to prevent or have early warning of incidents."
"If the smoke alarms had not alerted neighbours it could have taken a very long time before the fire was noticed."
He said that the six fire crews that attended the blaze had done so in very challenging conditions.
"A storm was raging at the time and our crews had an extremely tough challenge to reach the area. Trees and branches had fallen onto the lanes and the firefighters had to cut their way through the debris to reach the bungalow.
"There had also been a mini landslide which the fire appliances had to get around.
"When they arrived at the scene they found a very severe fire that was being whipped up by the strong winds."
He said as well as having to fight the severe fire they had problems in accessing water.
"This is a very remote area almost on a hilltop and there is no water supply. We had to request a specialist water carrier from our Bridgnorth station to help us."
"The firefighters worked extremely hard to get the fire under control in extremely challenging conditions."
The roof of the bungalow collapsed in the blaze which gutted the property.
The cause of the fire is still being investigated.
It is the fourth big fire within a half a mile radius of the area in eight years.
One of those fires happened in 2014, when a fire ripped through an isolated property at nearby Wern Ddu,.
