Brinsworth arson starts M-way blaze alert

MOTORISTS travelling along the M1 motorway were among dozens of people who contacted emergency services to report a giant blaze a quarter of a mile away.

But firefighters who responded to the emergency at around 5.45pm on Sunday night found that the flames visible for miles around were coming from a garden shed—the subject of a suspected arson—on Quarry Close, Brinsworth.

Flames from the small outbuilding had spread to a garage and melted through guttering and fascias on a neighbouring property when crews arrived from Darnall Fire Station.

One firefighter said: "The flames were pretty big and the measure of that was that there were a lot of reports from the public. Some were made by people driving along the M1.

"There were two pumps at the scene for around an hour putting out the blaze.

"The police were there. The fire had been started in the shed of a property that had laid derelict for more than a year and they were investigating it as an arson."