The barn fire in Hope which tied up firefighters for a number of hours has been ruled as being started by an electrical fault on a tractor or spontaneous combustion of the hay inside the barn.

North Wales Fire and Rescue Service were called to the incident at a farm at Hope at 23.22hrs on Monday, 5^th of August and crews from Wrexham and Buckley tackled the fire involving 500 tonnes of hay, a tractor and farm machinery stored in the barn.

The Incident Support Unit from Mold and relief crews from Ruthin and Deeside were dispatched, with four main jets and two hose reels being used to fight the fire. The incident was brought under control by 15.18hrs on the 6^th of August.

Chris Nott explained: "We will allow the straw to smoulder on the fields and will be monitoring the situation.

"Crews worked well in difficult conditions to get the fire under control and we are now working with Natural Resources Wales and the landowner to limit damage to the environment and control the fire."