Bronto 'invaluable' in battling danger blaze

MORE than 20 firefighters used 30,000 litres of water to douse a suspicious rubbish fire at a smallholding on the edge of Torquay early yesterday.

It was the second blaze at the remote site off the old St Marychurch Road at Ridge Road in just over eight weeks.

Then, firefighters spent three hours tackling the incident which resulted in two vehicles being damaged.

This time two other vehicles were destroyed in the blaze which took nearly four hours to subdue.

Four pumps, a water bowser and the Bronto hydraulic platform were used to deal with the fire which brigade officers conceded was 'of dubious origin'.

Police, who are investigating both outbreaks, closed the back road to Newton Abbot at Penn Inn while the Bronto was parked up on the carriageway to fight the flames from above.

Watch commander Tony Collier said: "The Bronto did a great job because it was a tricky and dangerous fire to fight.

"We approached it defensively because of the hazard posed by two gas cylinders. We didn't want to go too near it.

"The Bronto meant we could fight the blaze from above and so protect the safety of the crews on the ground. It was invaluable once again."

Thermal imaging tests on the cylinders later revealed they were cold, and probably did not contain any liquid gas.

The water bowser and all four pumps made three trips each to fill up with water at Barton, just as they had done for the May 11 fire.

A police spokeswoman confirmed scenes-of-crime officers attended the site at daybreak alongside fire investigation officers.

"We are investigating the incident," she said.

The road was re-opened at 4.24am with firefighters leaving the scene at 5am after receiving the initial shout at 1.30am.