FIREFIGHTERS were called to deal with a stolen dumper which had been abandoned in a field and set on fire.

But when the firefighters arrived it took them two hours to put out the blaze because the nearest water supply was about a mile away.

The truck had been stolen from Green Lane in Astley last night and was driven into a nearby field and set on fire.

There was no hydrant or water supply so the firefighters were forced to ferry dozens of bucket loads of water from the local canal to put out the fire.

A brigade spokesman said: "The fire would have burnt itself out eventually but we had to try to put it out because the large tyres would have given off a lot of toxic smoke.

"Using buckets of water from the canal was the only thing we could do. It was the long way round but we put it out in the end."

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