Wildfire warnings as firefighters battle numerous blazes in the West

Fire services across the West have been battling a number of blazes in the last few days as temperatures have risen.

In the latest incident, Avon Fire and Rescue Service said crews responded to flames off Hall Lane, Horton in south Gloucestershire on Monday.

They said a combine harvester and surrounding field caught alight.

Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Avon fire services also tackled blazes over the weekend, with thousands of square meters of farmland destroyed.

Gloucestershire farmer Edward Freeman lost a lot of his land to a blaze on Sunday and said everybody should be warned of the wildfire dangers on farms.

"It's the speed that shocked me," he said.

"We all think, 'Oh we can stamp that fire out,' but this one, no."

On Saturday, acres of farmland near Stonehenge caught fire.

Wiltshire crews also responded to a fire in Pewsey on Sunday, while on the same day officers in Gloucestershire attended a fire in Didmarton.

Meanwhile, Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service said it was having to respond to "a large number of field fires" during the current spell of hot, dry weather.

"During harvest, farmers work long, hard hours and it's easy to let chaff/dust build up in the machines, which can then catch fire if parts overheat," it said in a Tweet.

Given the exceptionally dry conditions experienced throughout this summer so-far, the risk of wildfires has been significantly elevated and this week sees the threat rise even higher.

There's no chance of rain until possibly Sunday, when showers or thunderstorms may spread from the south - but that's by no means certain at present.

What is certain is a week of heatwave conditions, combined with tinder-dry environments, will further exacerbate the potential for wildfires.

In these circumstances, great care is needed by folk outdoors. Activities such as woodland or parkland barbecues, or the reckless disposal of cigarettes, could quite literally spark a major incident threatening natural and man-made environments alike.

A blaze on the Downs in Bristol was started by a disposable barbeque on Sunday.

Following the fire, the MP for Bristol West, Darren Jones, pleaded with people not to use them.

"Given how dry the grass is at the moment, it could have been a lot worse than it was," the Labour MP said in a Facebook post.

"We could also do with not having to use water unnecessarily at the moment."

Meanwhile, Christopher Day said his brother Johnny had to run out of the combine harvester he was driving in when it caught fire on Sunday evening.

"The dry hay was drawn into the engine cooling fans which made it set on fire," he said.

"The best thing we could do was to get out of the machinery and get to the corner of the field."

Gloucestershire County Council and Gloucestershire Fire Service have issued safety advice due to the extreme weather.

They said they had dealt with 30 fires in the past week.

People have been advised to not use disposable barbecues, avoid making open fires and not discard cigarette ends in fields.

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