Almost 100 firefighters called out to major blaze near Heathrow airport

Fifteen fire engines and 97 firefighters and officers fought a grass fire on Staines Road in Feltham on Saturday evening as smoke from the blaze blew towards nearby Heathrow airport.

Grassland the size of five football pitches was damaged by the six-hour long blaze as planes flew overhead.

An aerial photo tweeted by NPAS Benson shows blackened fields ringed by fire and smoke within a few hundred metres of nearby buildings and the airport, but it did not affect their operations.

Fourteen horses were removed from a nearby field to a place of safety as the emergency services worked together to relay dozens of litres of water to help extinguish the inferno.

The London fire brigade was called just before 4pm and the fire was brought under control by firefighters from Feltham and surrounding stations at around 9.30pm.

It followed a similar large grass fire in Feltham on July 7, the second within a week in the same area.

A spokeswoman for London Fire Brigade said the long stretch of dry weather was a probable cause of the fire.