A SPECTACULAR plume of black smoke hovering over the Wye Valley last week could be seen as far away as Pontypool, Ross-on-Wye and the Forest of Dean Plateau.

It started with an ordinary bonfire at Whitelye Farm at Catbrook near Tintern. But as the wind got up, the bonfire ignited a pile of disused tyres building to a dense stack of thick black smoke.

A nearby resident jokingly said they didn't know the Wye Valley had its own volcano and wondered whether planes would be prevented from flying through Monmouthshire airspace.

Two engines from South Wales Fire and Rescue Service attended the blaze at the premises of Harold R Johns, an agricultural machinery and farm supplies dealer. Nobody was hurt in the incident because the fire was away from any buildings or machinery.