Haystack 'as tall as house' catches fire

Firefighters are still at the scene of a field fire after a haystack "as tall as a house" caught alight.

Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service said it was called to a field close to The Street, in Sporle, near Swaffham, at 17:48 BST on Sunday.

Appliances from Massingham, King's Lynn, Sandringham, Watton, Swaffham and Hingham attended the blaze, with one crew from Heacham remaining on site to check for any hotspots.

The service said with a yellow heat health warning for the East of England this week, huge parts of Norfolk were "tinderbox dry" and it advised people not to light barbecues and to dispose of cigarettes and litter safely.

Bob Brace, who lives close to the blaze, said he saw flames "shooting up above the roofs" of nearby houses at about 19:00 BST and guessed it was coming from a haystack, which farm workers had harvested earlier in the day.

He said: "As the haystack was catching fire, it was creating heat and there was quite a strong wind at the time... there are bits of it still in the garden, black burnt hay."

Brace said he felt it was fortunate bits of hay had not blown into neighbouring fields.

"Luckily, the wind changed direction and started blowing down the road towards the A47... nothing else caught around the area," he said.

Brace said residents had been on their way to a pub quiz in the village at the time, but firefighters stopped people from driving past the blaze due to the "immense heat" from the flames.

He said: "It was quite shocking really to see. The haystack was as tall as a house or more and the flames were leaping probably 12ft (3.6m) or 20ft (6m) into the air from the top of the stack and [there was] lots of smoke, obviously, as well.

"It was very worrying... a major concern was whether it was going to spread or not."

Brace said by morning it had "burnt down... it's probably the size of a small van or lorry. Lots of black burnt stuff and it's all a bit soggy".

Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service said one crew had remained at the scene.

Do you have a story suggestion for Norfolk? Contact us below.

Follow Norfolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.