The fire at its height. Picture by Alex Fleetwood

More than 40 firefighters from across Shropshire spent the night battling an “enormous fire-ball” after a barn containing 150 tonnes of straw went up in flames.

The blaze, which sent smoke and flames shooting high into the night sky, ripped through a dutch barn on farmland beside the A528 just north of Myddle, near Wem.

At one stage crews feared about 80 tonnes of fertiliser also being kept in the barn was toxic and raised the alert level – but it later emerged it posed no chemical risk.

Today the fire was burning out as motorists faced rush hour traffic chaos near the scene. Due to the cold conditions, when water from fire hydrants escaped on to the road it froze causing police to close it and set up a diversion via Burlton.

The fire involved four bays of an eight-bay barn measuring 25 metres by 60 metres and broke out yesterday at about 6.30pm.

The fire service sent 10 units from Baschurch, Wem, Tweedale, Bridgnorth, Tel-ford, Shrewsbury, Oswestry and Ellesmere and more than 40 firefighters battled the blaze at its height.

They wore breathing apparatus and deployed hoses, ground monitors and curtain sprays to fight the flames. At the fire’s height, police inspector Tanya Beckett said: “It’s quite a significant fire and there is also thick fog in the area which isn’t helping things.”

Phil Smith, watch manager with Wem fire crew, said: “We could see the fire from several miles away and when we got there we tried to break the barn in half to stop it spreading. I should say we had about 150 tonnes of straw on fire and there was an extra 80 tonnes of fertiliser in there too.

“We had to be careful because water from the hydrant was going on to the road and turning to ice.

“It’s too early to say what caused it but fire investigators will be taking a look.”

A fire service spokeswoman today confirmed the fertiliser had burnt off and been assessed as a low-level hazard of “minimum risk” to people’s health.

Tony Griffiths, who lives about half a mile from the farm, said last night: “I was in my kitchen when my neighbour rang. She said ‘it looks like your house is on fire’. I said ‘it’s not us’ and looked out the window and saw this enormous fire-ball.”

By Tom Johannsen