A FIRE crew from Newton Abbot worked with Network Rail staff to put out flames on a rail embankment in Teignmouth Road.

Trains were stopped for a while yesterday afternoon, Monday, while they dealt with the fire.

On their Facebook page Newton Abbot Firefighters said: ‘This afternoon (Monday) one crew from Newton Abbot fire station was mobilised to Teignmouth road to reports of a fire on the railway embankment below.

‘Upon arrival crews were met by police in an area were smoke was clearly issuing.

‘Crews initially used a 45mm attack jet to tackle the fire from above and cascade water onto the fire.

‘Crew members were able to make a good attack on the fire, however we were unable to fully extinguish it from above.

‘As a result, crews liaised with Network rail who sent a RIO (Railway Incident Officer) so that we could safely access the tracks.

‘Crews initially requested that all trains ran "under caution " while we were fighting the fire from above.

‘However, seeing as we had to access the line our IC (Incident Commander) requested that all trains were put on a "Stop" for the safety of the crews.

‘Crews used a hose reel lowered from above and a drag fork to pull the remain areas of vegetation apart and extinguish the fire.

‘Although the fire wasn’t too significant in size, we would like to thank everyone for their patience while we had trains on "Stop" in order to protect our crews and deal with this incident.’