Carelessly discarded remains from a barbecue have resulted in a spectacular fire in the West Flemish town of Ieper. The soldering embers caused a compost heap to ignite with flames reaching several metres from the ground and smoke billowing from the garden of a house in a residential area of the town.
On Monday morning a local resident noticed a fire in the garden of a house on the Sportstraat just outside the centre of Ieper. When the Westhoek Fire Service arrived at the scene flames from the fire were already several metres high.
Kristof Louagie of the Westhoek Fire Service told VRT News that “It was a compost heap next to a shed that had gone up in flames. Firefighters were able to extinguish the fire quite quickly, meaning that only a fence and some nearby grass was damaged”.
An investigation into the fire by the Arro Ieper Local Police Service has found that it started after embers from a barbecue ended up on the compost heap.