Crews putting out the fire on the A41 near Newport. Pictures by Ed Bagnall

A busy road was closed for nearly eight hours when about 30 tonnes of straw on the back of an articulated lorry burst into flames on the outskirts of Newport.

Traffic had to be diverted through Newport town centre, causing heavy congestion, as fire crews battled the blaze on the busy A41, by the Audley Avenue Business Park, yesterday.

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The flat-back lorry and the trailer it was towing were gutted in the fire but the driver managed to pull to the side of the road and jump clear before the flames took hold.

About 20 firefighters were called to the scene at 9.45am and they took several hours to tackle the incident.

Telford police spokeswoman Denise Wakefield said the road was eventually reopened at about 5pm yesterday.

Watch manager Drew Perkins, of Wellington fire station, said: “We have no idea what the cause of the fire was.

“Straw can spontaneously combust, however, particularly if it is damp when loaded.

“Unfortunately, when the lorry driver pulled over, some of the straw fell off the trailer and set alight the embankment alongside the business park.

“We sent a crew round to the Focus Do-It-All store on the park and staff there let us through to their compound so we could fight the fire from the other side of the hedge and stop it spreading to the businesses.”

He added: “We also had to call out electricity company engineers as the lorry had stopped under a metal lamppost and that melted in the blaze.”

Mr Perkins said firefighters had to drag the burning straw off the lorry to then put out the flames on the ground.

The debris was then loaded onto a tractor and trailer to be taken away and disposed of.

He said the Highways Agency was alerted and assessed the state of the road to see whether it would need resurfacing before it could re-open.

Mr Perkins said: “It was a sunny day and so there were quite a few people on the road.

“They had to be diverted as the road was closed either side of the fire and that caused a bit of traffic chaos in the centre of Newport.”

He added: “When we left we had to take quite a long trek through the town centre to get back to the station.

“It took us about half an hour to get out of Newport so I imagine this fire caused quite a bit of inconvenience for local people looking to get around yesterday.”

Mr Perkins said the lorry had been completely destroyed in the blaze but the driver suffered no injuries.