MORE than 30 firefighters were called to tackle a blaze at a farm in Sandridge on Wednesday.

Six fire engines attended the fire at Hill End Farm that devastated more than 20 hectares of standing crops and stubble.

The fire was ignited when a combine harvester struck a piece of flint. Combine driver Kevin Pearcy desperately tried to smother the flames with his overalls but they spread rapidly across the arid ground.

His father, Mr Gordon Pearcy, who owns the land, said: 'This isn't the first time this has happened because the ground here is very flinty.

'It doesn't take much to start a fire of this size, we were just lucky the wind was blowing in the direction it did or more crops would have been lost.'

Mr Pearcy lost around five acres of wheat in the blaze at a cost of more than £1,000, but praised the quick thinking of farm worker Paul Simpson for saving much of the crop.

He said: 'Paul ploughed a fire break in the field to stop the fire spreading which made a big difference.'

It took firefighters almost an hour to bring the blaze under control. Leading firefighter Steve Duncan said: 'It was a very large fire, equivalent to 40 football pitches. Because of its size we were very concerned about the risk to nearby farms.'