South Yorkshire firefighters hospitalised after day when major incident was declared

Four firefighters were taken to hospital after an unprecedented series of blazes led to a major incident being declared in South Yorkshire.

The firefighters were involved in tackling blazes that broke out across the county on a day of record-breaking temperatures on Tuesday, 19 July.

South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service dealt with more than 2,100 calls, including at least 1,500 of an emergency nature. It mobilised to 228 incidents.

The brigade confirmed a major incident remained in place on Wednesday as investigations continue into blazes which engulfed homes in Barnsley, Kiveton Park and Maltby on Tuesday evening.

A spokesman said four firefighters were taken to hospital on Tuesday with heat exhaustion but added: "Thankfully each of these has made a full recovery and they are all fine now."

The brigade's resources became increasingly stretched over the course of Tuesday afternoon after a series of wildfires developed, eventually spreading to homes.

Six houses on Woodland Drive, in Barnsley, were devastated when a fire broke out in a back garden and swept through nearby properties.

Carl Fox lives only a few feet from where the fire started and he told how his house only missed being caught in the flames by a few minutes.

He said: "I  got a call on my video doorbell to say my fence was on fire, so I came back from work to find some lads in the garden fighting the fire with a hose pipe.

"It started next to the fence with a shed and it all just went up.

"The wind blew it up on to the houses and this is what we see now.

"If the guys had not lifted that fence panel out to use the hose pipes in the garden - that probably gave us another five or 10 minutes otherwise the whole house would have been up."

"It would have just carried on going - our house would have taken up and next door too."

More than £18,000 has now been raised to help residents of Woodland Drive.

Elsewhere, houses in Kiveton Park, near Rotherham, and Strauss Crescent, Maltby, were also gutted.

Firefighters said they also dealt with many less serious fires on fields throughout South Yorkshire, with many of these blazes leaving large plumes of smoke stretching across roads and villages.

Crews from Derbyshire and West Yorkshire were called in to help the South Yorkshire firefighters.