Investigation concludes into fire which destroyed 12 homes in Norfolk village

Fires at Ashill in Norfolk spread from fields to homes. Credit: ITV News Anglia
Drone footage of the fire Credit: Pink Spitfire Photography

The cause of a fire which destroyed 12 homes in a Norfolk village may never be known.

Investigators have said that the blaze, which swept through Ashill near Swaffham on the hottest day on record, was not caused by Arson.

The fire in Ashill was one of dozens which broke out on the 19th July - with temperatures reaching more than 40C.

Crews from across the country, like these from Tyne & Wear, were drafted in to help Credit: ITV Anglia

Firefighters were drafted in from hundreds of miles away to help colleagues in other parts of the country as they battled call outs on a scale described as "unprecedented".

Crews from Newcastle, Liverpool, Avon and Shropshire all joined the fight to save homes in Norfolk as the county's fire service recieved more than 4,600 calls on the hottest day on record.

Some of the homes destroyed at Ashill in Norfolk

A spokesman for Norfolk Fire Service said:

"The investigation there has been completed, but it did not reach any conclusion on the initial cause of the fire – unfortunately this isn’t all that uncommon in field fires during hot weather, but we can state that no evidence at all was found of any deliberate start to the fire.

"There are an awful lot of ways a fire can start accidentally in those conditions and sadly wildfires that start in dry fields very often leave little evidence of their exact cause behind."

Homes were also destroyed at Ashmanhaugh, while acres of previous coastal parkland was torched at Wild Ken Hill, site of the BBC's Springwatch programme.