Seventy firefighters called to tacklestable block blaze near Hawick

Operations control in Edinburgh received a call at 8.39pm on Tuesday, reporting a large fire in a stable block at Spital Tower Stables. At its height there were 70 firefighters on the scene, with appliances attending from Hawick, Selkirk, Jedburgh, Galashiels, Kelso and Edinburgh.

When crews arrived they were faced with a rapidly-developing outbreak, along with a number of freed horses. Crews immediately got to work to extinguish the blaze.

Firefighters initially ensured that all the occupants of the building and livestock were safe, while continuing to fight the fire externally in three sectors, working hard to prevent further spread to the attached farmhouse.

Firemen worked in difficult conditions throughout the night to bring the blaze under control and the incident was scaled down around 1am.

A crew remained on scene yesterday to monitor the fireground and carry out damping-down operations.

The cause of the incident is under investigation.