Date: 06/09/2018
Time: 23:33:00
Address: Cantsfield Road, Cantsfield
Incident Number: 1809002128
Fire Crews from Lancaster and Hornby were called to reports of a fire at a property on Cantsfield Road, Cantsfield near Hornby. The fire involved a single storey farm building, approximately 30m by 15m. The barn contains approximately 1500 tonnes of silage and approximately 200 bales of straw. The number of appliances at the scene was quickly increased to 8 for water relay, and this included fire crews from North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service and 3 crews from Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service.
UPDATE: 07:00hrs
Firefighters continue to deal with the large silage barn fire in Cantsfield this morning. Currently the incident has reduced back down to 8 fire appliances at the scene, including a High Volume Pump from Burnley and a Hose Layer from our colleagues over in Kendal. The fire is now surrounded and the addition of the HVP and plant equipment means we have been able to set up a 1km water relay from the River Greta and excavate burning material from the barn and extinguish it in adjacent fields.
Although Cantsfield Road remains closed at this time we aim to minimise disruption as much as possible for locals using the A687 and recognise its importance particularly as we move towards the morning rush hour. We are working alongside colleagues from Lancashire Constabulary and hope to reopen the road around 07:30hrs this morning, albeit with likely speed restrictions in place.
Incident Commander Mark Hutton has been dealing with the incident overnight and said; ‘this has been a real partnership effort in getting to where we are with this fire. There have been several crews from both Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service as well as North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service assisting us and we can’t forget the invaluable welfare support from the Greater Manchester Fire Salvation Army team and the Air Support Unit. This has been a significant incident, which will also going to be a prolonged incident as we work to excavate the material from the barn and fully extinguish the fire. I would like to thank everyone involved in the firefighting effort so far for their hard work and reassure the public that we are working to bring about a successful conclusion to this incident as quickly as possible. In the meantime, we are still advising any locals to keep their windows and doors closed as a precaution.”
The incident is now being resourced solely by Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service appliances.
03:00hrs – There are now 12 fire crews (approximately 60 firefighters) dealing with this incident. Firefighting operations are still taking place using 5 jets, one ground monitor and The aerial support unit is also in attendance and there are excavators in use removing some of the top layers of silage from the building.
01:13hrs – The incident has now been sectorised and the fire is being tackled using 3 jets, 1 monitor and 1 lightweight portable pump.
00:42hrs – There are 8 fire crews in attendance (approximately 40 firefighters) establishing a water relay to assist with tackling the fire. Firefighters are tackling the fire using one main jet, two hose reels and four breathing apparatus. Cantsfield Road has been closed to assist with firefighting operations. Any local residents in the area are being advised to stay indoors and keep windows and doors closed as a precaution.