FIRE crews from multiple stations across the Tamar spent a night battling a large agricultural fire in Sutcombe.

The incident took place at around 1am in the morning of Friday, July 31, with the initial responders to the 999 call attending reports of a fire in the open.

It transpired it was an agricultural fire with two large silage pits alight.

Upon arrival, the team from Holsworthy Fire Station were presented with a fire that was spreading to a nearby row of trees.

Teams from Holsworthy, Torrington, Hartland, Hatherleigh, Bideford, Bude, Crediton, Ilfracombe, Barnstaple, North Tawton and Okehampton fire stations were all involved in the response, and their collective efforts saw the fire brought under control before it could reach a third silage pit.

The incident took approximately five hours to extinguish, with the teams stood down just after 6am.

A spokesperson for Holsworthy Fire Station said: “Originally one appliance from Holsworthy was mobilised to a reported fire in the open, whilst on route further information received at fire control that this was an agricultural fire affecting two large silage pits, additional resources were deployed to support firefighting efforts. On arrival our crew was met with a large fire spread across two pits and spreading to a row of trees.

“Due to the lack of water supplies nearby to the incident further more resources were requested to assist with the incident. Crews worked hard over two sectors, using multiple jets and firefighting equipment to bring the incident under control and stopped the fire spread to a third silage pit.

“After a few hours of dampening down extinguishing flare ups. Appliances were down scaled and the stop message sent just after 6am. Our crew returned back to home station just after 6.30am, to clean and service equipment ready for the next shout. No further information to add.”