FIREFIGHTERS were called to a spate of bin fires in Ferndale last night.

On social media, residents complained of smoky conditions in West Swindon. In Poynings Way, the smell of smoke was said to be so bad that people were forced to close their windows – despite the warm night.

We asked Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service about incidents in the area.

And the answer they came back with was slightly surprising – because the fires were nowhere near West Swindon.

The call-outs began at 10.25pm on Tuesday, when a crew from Swindon’s Drove Road fire station was called to Brunel Crescent, off Whitehouse Road. Bins belonging to St Mark’s Recreation Ground tennis club were said to have been well alight.

Shortly before 1am on Wednesday morning, a crew from the same fire station was back in the area.

They dealt with another bin fire, this time on St Mary’s Grove – between Whitehouse Road and Pinehurst Road. It was after the third fire, at around the same time on Ferndale Road, that firefighters called police.

Separately, Stratton fire crews were sent to a blaze in a hedge in Taw Hill shortly after 9pm.