TWENTY fire crews, as well as other support teams, tackled a blaze throughout the night that spread through three thatched roof terraced houses in North Tawton last Friday.

The fire started in one property in Essington and quickly spread through to neighbouring properties.

Nine crews attended at around 8pm, along with a command unit, a water carrier, aerial platform and a hose layer.

Western Power Distribution isolated electricity to the properties to enable crews to work from the roof, and the British Red Cross Fire Emergency Support Services provided support to the residents of the houses.

After 25 minutes three more fire crews were called to help as the thatch on the roofs was well alight.

They made progress salvaging and making breaks in the thatch until the fire had been sectioned.

Eight relief crews took over the firefighting just after 10pm, and got to work stripping the thatch from the roof. The thatch was being cleared and dampened down while firefighters tackled the blaze from inside the property.

Police closed the road at around 3.44am while the fire was left in the hands of one remaining crew.

The fire was finally extinguished just before 11am the following morning.

Ninety per cent of the thatch from two properties was removed, one property was left severely damaged by the fire and water and another had 10% fire damage and 50% water damage.

l Two fire crews were called to a bonfire in the open in Station Road, Okehampton, that had gone out of control on Saturday morning.

The fire had spread to a garden shed, five metres by three metres in size, which was well alight along with the very large bonfire.

The fire was extinguished using a hosereel jet and a main jet. The shed was only slightly damaged by the fire.