FIREFIGHTERS spent more than four hours tackling a blaze at an Usk farm, which caused around £250,000 worth of damage.

Fire crews were called to Tump Farm, in Llantrisant, Usk, at 4.03am yesterday after the owners, Glyn and Jill Williams, both aged in their late 50s, raised the alarm.

The couple were woken by the sound of exploding tyres and looked outside to see two barns, which contained around 250 tonnes of straw and 30 tonnes of fertiliser, ablaze.

40 firefighters and 14 appliances attended the scene including crews from Malpas, Caldicot and Caerphilly.

Firefighters used two water tankers as well as water from the farm’s pond to put out the fire and prevent it from spreading to the 500-year-old farm house.

An environmental unit from Abercarn and a chemical unit from Penarth also attended to ensure that the fertiliser in the barn did not get washed into the local water supply.

As fire crews worked to control the blaze the family worked quickly to move their 120 cattle to safety in a nearby field.

The fire gutted the two barns, which contained the farm’s entire stock of winter feed as well as two tractors, a feeding machine, a trailer and a digger.

Firefighters remained at the farm for most of the day before the fire investigation team arrived to start work on determining the cause of the fire.

Mr Williams’ son Mark, who lives in a bungalow on the farm, said the family were shaken by what had happened.

He said: “It was bad enough for me but my parents had to see what they have built up over the last 40 years go up in smoke within four hours.

“It’s a business but it’s also a family farm and home, it’s our lives.”

Mr Williams estimated the damage to be around £250,000 and said it would take around six months to clear the site and rebuild the barns.

But he said the family were determined to remain in business: “We will have to recover from this, we can’t lie down and let this beat us. Tractors and machinery can be replaced, we were just lucky it didn’t spread to the house.”