Fire services in East stand down major incidents

Fire services in the East of England have stood down their states of emergency after a series of blazes that began on the UK's hottest ever day.

Services in Norfolk, Suffolk and Hertfordshire declared major incidents due to fires on Tuesday.

Suffolk Fire and Rescue urged caution with more dry weather forecast and the Latitude Festival at the weekend.

Jon Lacey, chief fire officer, said: "Our firefighters [were] tackling incidents in extreme temperatures."

Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service said it attended crop and field fires during the record-breaking temperatures, including ones in Attleborough, Snettisham, Bayfield and Barton Turf.

Five homes are thought to have been destroyed in Brancaster Staithe and people were also evacuated from properties in Poringland and Ashill.

Wild Ken Hill said an unknown amount of wildlife had been killed in a fire on the reserve.

In Suffolk, firefighters were called out to "a significant number of incidents", of which 49 were fires in the open.

They included large blazes at a field in Campsea Ashe and a park in Ipswich.

The fire service in Hertfordshire said crews attended more than 240 emergency incidents, including crop fires, field fires and road traffic collisions on major roads.

It said 12 crews attended a field fire in Codicote, six fire engines tackled a combine harvester fire in Buntingford and the service also had to deal with a crash on the M1.

The East experienced some of its hottest temperatures on record on Tuesday, as some areas of England exceeded 40C (104F).

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