Thick smoke billows from large barn fire

Firefighters have had a busy weekend across a county tackling blazes in a barn and bin store.

Thick black smoke could be seen billowing from a large fire in a barn at a farm in Thorney, which was tackled by four crews from Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service on Saturday.

That same morning a bin store fire in Peterborough resulted in a loss of water supply to more than 100 households in the area.

The fire service said the cause of both blazes was accidental.

Crews from Thorney, Dogsthorpe, Stanground, Manea and a water carrier from Ramsey were sent to the scene of the barn fire on North Bank, Thorney, at about 09:20 BST.

The fire service said the blaze was already "well-developed" when they arrived and crews wore breathing apparatus and used hose reels and jets to extinguish the fire, which took more than two hours.

In Peterborough, fire broke out in a bin store in Vicarage Farm Road shortly before 10:00.

A volunteer fire crew from the city extinguished it and crews made regular inspections throughout the day to ensure the area was safe, the fire service said.

Dr Shabina Qayyum, the Labour leader of Peterborough City Council, who attended the scene, said the fire damaged a water tank, "causing a cut-off to the water supply of 112 flats".

Meanwhile, in the south of the county, an accidental blaze that started in a combine harvester and spread to five acres of farmland in Meldreth on Friday night was tackled by about 20 firefighters.

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