An Angus farming family are counting the cost of a blaze which destroyed around 15 tonnes of grain.
Firefighters came from Arbroath and Carnoustie to Slade Farm, Carmyllie, shortly before 5pm on Wednesday to find the grain dryer well alight.
The firefighters, assisted by farmer James Black and his son Hugh, used breathing apparatus and a hosereel on the multi-chamber machine, plus a jet on the funnel, to extinguish the flames.
They had done so by around 8pm and Hugh said around half of the dryer’s load of around 30 tonnes of grain had been destroyed.
“We managed to save about 15 tonnes but the rest has gone. The mechanism is badly warped, though.
“It was an internal fire. I don’t know what caused it but probably a build-up of too much heat from the machine ignited it.”
The fire has come after a “challenging” summer for the farm.
Hugh said, “It’s been a pretty poor harvest so far. Every chance we have had when the weather is good, the land has been too soft to get the combine out.
“After the recent good weather we brought in around a thousand tonnes of wheat and now there’s nowhere to process it. It’s certainly made the summer a bit more challenging for us.”
Firefighters remained at the scene damping down.