Firefighters tackle 10-acre forest fire in Burghfield

Blaze breaks out on Englefield Estate this afternoon (Wednesday)

MORE than 30 firefighters were called to tackle a 10-acre forest fire on the estate of Newbury MP Richard Benyon today (Wednesday).

Fire crews from across Berkshire battled the 30ft flames after being called to the scene to the Englefield Estate between Burghfield and Mortimer at around 1.30pm.

A section of Reading Road was closed as five fire crews and two water carriers tackled the inferno which was quickly brought under control, with crews now damping down the site.

Speaking at the scene station manager at RBFRS HQ Michael Griffiths said: "We had close to 10 acres of forest fire here today.

"The fire was mainly contained to the undergrowth.

"We've had five fire appliances tackling this incident and approximately 30 firefighters.

"We now have the fire in check and we're preventing it from spreading any further.

"There are a lot of things that could have caused this we're currently getting our fire investigation team who will be working with Thames Valley Police to try and identify the cause of the fire.

"We can't rule out arson but we also can't confirm that it is arson."

No-one is thought to have been injured in the incident.