Fire crews free pig stuck in burning Moray barn

Firefighters battled for nine hours yesterday to get a blaze at a Moray pig farm under control.

The alarm was sounded at 8.25am after bundles of straw in an outbuilding near Cummingston caught fire.

Thick plumes of smoke billowed from the farm and across the coastal countryside throughout the morning and afternoon.

One farm worker said he had “no idea” how the blaze had caught hold.

He added: “We have had the police here though, and they don’t seem to think it was anything suspicious.”

The man later added that nobody had been injured, nor any animals affected in the drama.

But a spokeswoman for the fire service last night said that crews were only able to free a pig after it spent hours trapped in the burning barn.

She said: “There was a message at 3pm that one pig had been released from the barn, it seemed to survive in there for a long time.”

The fire service sent two vehicles from Elgin and two from Forres.

They remained at the rural spot to the south of Cummingston until about 5pm.

The spokeswoman added: “During the afternoon, crews used two main jets and two hose reel jets to dampen the area down.”