Cost of tackling huge summer wildfire revealed

The financial cost to Cambridgeshire's fire service for tackling the major summer wildfire at Holme Fen is due to be more than £750,000, board papers have revealed.

The papers, published ahead of a meeting of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Fire Authority this Wednesday, outlined the cost, as dozens of firefighters spent a month tackling the woodland and peatland blaze.

They said £336,000 had been spent so far, but the total did not include all the third-party support costs that have yet to be received.

"The overall total is expected to exceed £750k and we expect to be able to reclaim this in the form of a wildfire grant [from government]," said the documents.

Crews were on site for a total of 31 days after the fire broke out at the nature reserve, south of Peterborough, on 8 August.

At its height about 100 firefighters from across the country were called to tackle the blaze, during the country's hottest summer on record.

When firefighters left the incident in September, assistant chief officer Stuart Smith described it as "the biggest incident our county has faced in many, many years".

Holme Fen is part of the Great Fen, which covers a number of nature reserves and farmland in the north west of Cambridgeshire.

The site contains deep peat soil, which posed challenges for firefighters. Peat fires can be difficult to extinguish because they can spread underground without producing obvious flames or large amounts of smoke.

Parts of Holme Fen, which is managed by Natural England, remain closed to visitors while clearance work is under way.

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