Firefighters tackle blaze at Farm building near Market Drayton

Firefighters from across Shropshire battled throughout the night to put out a blaze which engulfed a farm building near Market Drayton.

The fire broke out in the building, used as a composting facility by Vital Earth in Sutton Lane in Sutton upon Tern, shortly before 1.20pm yesterday.

It is the second fire at the site in four days.

A Shropshire and Fire and Rescue Service spokesman said it spread rapidly resulting in the whole building being engulfed in flames.

John Wakefield, technical director of Vital Earth Ltd, said the fire was contained to the building measuring about 150ft by 80ft.

Rescue pumps from Market Drayton, Newport, Wem, Whitchurch and Telford Central attended along with water ladders from Prees, Hodnet Shrewsbury and Tweedale.

The incident commander from Shrewsbury and the heavy pumping unit from Prees also attended while firefighters from Oswestry were called to provide fire cover at Prees as the incident was ongoing.

The fire service said the brick barn contained about 100 tonnes of waste products and four main jets were in use.

Mr Wakefield said: "We are not sure of the cause of the fire at the moment, it's too early to tell. It does look pretty serious."

He added the site took deliveries from north Shropshire wheelie bins to mature into compost and the building concerned in the fire contained maturing compost and machinery.

Police were made aware of the incident.

Steve Harper, managing director of Vital Earth Ltd, said Sunday's fire was due to smouldering compost and was quickly put out, but the latest fire was under investigation.