A fire spread from a bin that burns garden waste to tinder-dry grass, conifer trees and a fence last night.

Firefighters were called to the blaze started by a garden incinerator bin in Caen Wood Road, Ashtead, at 7.40pm. A spokesman at Leatherhead fire station said: "It is so dry it just spread from the grass to the conifers that go up like anything and up to the fence."

He said the owner used a garden hose to tackle the fire that spread to a couple of fence panels and three or four conifers. On arrival, firefighters extinguished the rest of the flames.

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