A farmer has thanked firefighters after they tackled a massive barn blaze.

Plumes of billowing black smoke could be seen two miles away after the fire started at High Wheathead Farm in Exley Head near Keighley.

At its peak, 20 firefighters from Keighley, Bingley and Haworth surrounded the stone barn with four large water jets.

David Wood, whose son Robert runs the farm, said around 300 bales of hay were destroyed in the fire as well as a hay-making machine and tractor parked at one end the barn. A trailer and Landrover parked outside also caught fire and were destroyed.

Mr Wood said he had switched the tractor engine off but an electrical fault caused it to catch fire just minutes after he left the building.

He said: “I heard what I thought was an alarm going, with hindsight it was the tractor horn going off on its own. I had filled it full of diesel ready for hay making as soon as we got some fine days.

“I knew I couldn’t put it out and I rang the fire brigade. They stayed until they were certain there was nothing else that was going to burn. The fire got into the hay so we took bales out into the field.”

As there was no water hydrant at the farm, water had to be pumped in from nearby Occupation Lane and the housing estate at Steadings Way.

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