Asbestos Fears After Barn Fire

2 September 2011, 10:21 | Updated: 2 September 2011, 12:17

People living near a fire involving a barn with an asbestos roof are being told they no longer need to keep windows and doors closed.

The roof of the barn at Stoke Goldington near Milton Keynes contained the dangerous substance.

The fire started just before 11pm on Thursday 1 September 2011, but smoke continued to rise after the fire had been put out on the morning of Friday 2 September.  The smoke was expected to come down around the villages of Hartwell and Piddington on the Bucks/Northants border at around 12noon on Friday.

Buckinghamshire Fire and Rescue warned people living in the villages to make sure their windows and doors were closed because of fears the wind would carry asbestos particles in the smoke into people's homes.

A change in weather conditions in the late morning of Friday 2 September meant much of the asbestos had dispersed.

Farm machinery and five hundred tonnes of straw was destroyed in the fire at the barn on Church Lane, which took just under two hours to put out.  Firefighters were able to rescue a herd of forty cows and bullocks.

The cause of the fire isn't yet known.