Firefighters kept busy with grass fires in Milton Keynes as heatwave continues with no sign of rain

The drama started yesterday (Monday) with a fire in the woods off Church Road in Bow Brickhill.

Two crews attended at 6am to find the blaze had taken hold on undergrowth deep within the woodland.

The firefighters established a water shuttle and used water backpacks, beaters and hose reel jets to stop the flames from spreading.

Then, at around 4.30pm, more crews rushed to fields at Salford Road on Brooklands, where a tractor had caught fire and the flames were spreading rapidly through the grass.

Firefighters used two sets of breathing apparatus due to the dense smoke and two hose reels. The fire affected two fields measuring around 100 metres by 100 metres.

Just over an hour later there was a call out to a rubbish fire at Marsh End Road in Newport Pagnell

A pile of garden and domestic waste, measuring around four metres by two metres, was well alight.

The firefighters used one hose reel jet and one thermal imaging camera to control the blaze.

Finally, at 7.48pm, bushes on Fishermead Boulevard caught fire. Firefighters rushed to the scene but a seven metre stretch of bushes was destroyed before the flames were extinguished.

This month is the fourth month that MK, along with many other parts of the UK, as seen hot temperatures and little or no rain – and this has increased the risk of wildfires everywhere.

There are now drought fears, as the levels of water in rivers and reservoirs fall to the lowest levels since the great heatwave of 1976.

But Anglian Water, the company that covers Milton Keynes, still say they have no current plans to introduce a hosepipe ban.

They are monitoring water levels locally and urging customers to use their water wisely.

A spokesman said: "Despite a very dry year so far, our reservoir levels are stable, at around 80 per cent full, and our groundwater sources are in reasonable shape too, so we’re not currently planning on any hosepipe bans this year.”