Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service attended 48 incidents in a single day on Tuesday, 7 July, prompting Group Manager Neil Sadler to urge residents and farmers to take extra care. Resources were stretched across the county as crews tackled field fires, agricultural blazes, a pub fire in Moulton and a house fire in Newton Road, Northampton, all fuelled by very dry conditions. The service has asked people to avoid lighting bonfires, use barbecues with caution and dispose of cigarettes safely.
A large farmland fire off Sulby Hall Old Drive in Sulby broke out around 12:40pm and required four crews, including one from Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service. That incident damaged a combine harvester and scorched 15 acres of land. Elsewhere, a barn storing manure caught fire on Raunds Road in Chelveston, drawing crews from five stations. A combine harvester also sparked a field fire near Yelvertoft that spread into hedgerow and crops, while an overheated hay baler ignited 10 acres across two fields in Church Stowe just after 5pm.
At about the same time, five crews went to a pub on West Street in Moulton, where a kitchen fire had reached the roof. The premises were closed at the time. Later that evening, crews from Desborough and Mereway attended a house fire in Newton Road, Northampton, which investigators traced to an accidental electrical fault in a front bedroom. Group Manager Neil Sadler said that despite the intense pressure, the service covered all parts of the county safely and still had capacity to assist other emergency services. Resources were sent to a railway incident in Bugbrooke and to support police at a property in St Andrew’s Road, Northampton, after a suspicious device was found.
The busy day follows a pattern of heightened fire activity linked to the warm, dry summer. Two weeks earlier, on 26 June, crews from seven stations battled a wildfire at Weekley Hall Wood in Kettering that burned roughly two acres of woodland. That fire was also treated as accidental and was linked to prolonged dry conditions and high temperatures. Across the two incidents, stations from Earls Barton, Wellingborough, Mereway, Kettering, Irthlingborough, Daventry, Rothwell, Desborough, Burton Latimer, Towcester and Oundle have seen significant deployment.
The service renewed its call for extra vigilance, particularly around farm machinery and outdoor flames. “Although we were very busy yesterday, we were able to sufficiently cover all parts of the county safely throughout the day,” Sadler said. “As well as our own incidents, we deployed a large number of resources to assist other emergency services, including at a railway incident in Bugbrooke and supporting police in St Andrew’s Road in Northampton after the discovery of a suspicious device.”
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