Pigs and piglets saved as fire crews battle Church Stretton barn blaze
Firefighters rescued a number of pigs and piglets as they spent hours tackling a large barn fire near Church Stretton.
Shropshire Fire and Rescue were alerted to the fire at Chatwell at around 11am on Tuesday.
Several crews rushed to the scene to tackle the blaze, which involved a large stone barn.
Church Stretton Fire Station said on Facebook: "Just returned from a building fire where we had the task of stopping the spread of fire from buildings containing pigs and piglets.
"Happy to report we manage our task very well and quickly with the help from much Wenlock, Craven Arms and a water bowser from Bridgnorth."
Earlier station manager Jim Barker said from the scene: "We're currently in attendance at Chatwell, near Church Stretton.
"One of the farm barns, an old stone barn, has been involved in fire. Crews are busy, working to extinguish the fire inside the barn.
"We've currently got crews from Church Stretton, Craven Arms, Much Wenlock and Bridgnorth working on the fire.
"The fire has pretty much been surrounded now, but some of the challenges we've been facing is that the building is unstable due to the fire. We can't enter the building so we're having to fight the fire from outside.
"Obviously water supplies out in this rural setting are really difficult.
"We're likely to be on scene for another couple of hours, reduced down to maybe one pump for a watch and brief until we're sure the fire is completely extinguished."
The incident follows several large farm fires in south Shropshire in the last few weeks.
Last week, Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service were called to a barn fire in Bridgnorth, just one day after crews were called to a field in Tasley when 400 tonnes of straw and manure caught alight.
A Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service spokesperson said: “We’ve seen an increase in barn fires over the last couple of weeks involving bales of stacked straw and hay. These can self-ignite and spread rapidly.”
