Shropshire firefighters called out to cluster of incidents despite plea for residents to take extra care
The fire service has been busy dealing with a cluster of open fires across Shropshire in the last 24 hours despite issuing multiple warnings for the public to avoid starting them throughout the coronavirus pandemic.
Incidents include a fire near The Boathouse in Shrewsbury, a blaze near Market Drayton Football Club and a bonfire that spread to a resident's summerhouse.
Shropshire Fire & Rescue Service crews from Baschurch were sent to Shrewsbury Road in Preston Gubbals, north of Albrighton, at about 9.15pm yesterday to shrubbery and rubble which had been set alight and left unattended.
Firefighters used two hose reel jets and drag rakes to extinguish the blaze within 45 minutes.
This came just 35 minutes after a bonfire was started near The Boathouse in Kingsland, requiring a fire engine and crews sent from Shrewsbury station to use buckets of water and other equipment to put it out.
At 4.30pm yesterday in Market Drayton, two fire appliances including the incident support unit were sent to an unattended bonfire on the Greenfields Lane playing field, near the football club.
Garden waste consisting of wood and undergrowth was set alight and left unattended, and crews tackled it using a high-pressured jet.
A spokesperson from the town's fire station said: "On arrival at the scene the crew found that the fire involved a quantity of wood and undergrowth.
"Due to the difficult access for the major appliance, the incident commander requested that the 4x4 Incident Support Unit (ISU), should also be mobilised to the incident.
"On arrival of the ISU, the crew set about extinguishing the fire using a high pressure lance.
"It is believed that the fire had originated from controlled burning, which had been left unattended."
An hour before, firefighters also attended reports of a shed fire at an address in Shrewsbury.
Crews from the town's fire station rushed to the property, in Sunfield Road, to find a bonfire had spread to the exterior of a summerhouse.
At the same time in Telford, a fire measuring roughly five square metres had been started next to a public footpath.
A fire engine was sent from Tweedale to the incident near Coalport Road in Madeley.
The fire service reports the blaze consisted of grass and undergrowth, and that a hose reel jet was used to put the fire out within half an hour.
Today, fire crews were called to a car blaze on the westbound carriageway of the A5 at Cluddley, near Telford, at 2.47pm.
Three crews dealt with the fire in the engine compartment of a car.
Shortly beforehand crews were called to a blaze involving a fence and hedge in Lutwyche Road, Church Stretton and a blaze involving three metres of hedge in Cross Lanes, St Martins.
Just before 12.50pm, firefighters were called to a blaze involving a shed and garden machinery at Chadwell, near Newport.
The cluster of incidents comes after fire chiefs urged residents to avoid lighting bonfires throughout the coronavirus pandemic.
The service warned that a combination of dry and warm weather, combined with recycling and waste disposal centres closing, had prompted an increase in people burning rubbish at home and in public places.
Kevin Faulkner, head of service delivery at SFRS, said precaution was needed to avoid firefighters being called out unnecessarily.
