FIRE services responded to several call-outs last night due to the high winds.

Just after 7.15pm, crews from Malton, York, Acomb and a water bowser from Tadcaster attended a large fire to agricultural buildings near Acklam.

A fire spokesperson said that the fire was caused by a bonfire, which accidentally spread to the nearby buildings due to the high winds.

North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue advised residents to keep their windows shut due to the smoke from the blaze.

At 8.50pm, crews from Pickering and Sherburn were mobilised to reports of a fire at Hawthorn Avenue, Malton.

This turned out to be a PVC door curtain which had blown into a security light.

The fire was out on arrival, but crews used a thermal imaging camera to make sure the scene was safe and free of hotspots.

In the early hours of this morning, at 2am, a fire crew from Malton were called to Commercial Street in Norton.

They removed a sign that was hanging dangerously over a footpath due to the high winds.

Power cuts

Northern Powergrid, the company responsible for the region’s power network, said it has worked throughout the night to successfully restore power to around 18,680 customers after Storm Ophelia caused power cuts across parts of the region.

Since around 2pm yesterday, the gale-force storm has caused power cuts for customers including in North Yorkshire.

Engineers successfully restored customer’s power by diverting electricity through alternative routes on its network, wherever possible.

Further repair work will be progressing once the current winds speeds drop and it’s safe for linesmen to climb and restore power for the 970 customers currently still affected.

Rod Gardner, Northern Powergrid’s head of network operations, said: “We’ve been closely monitoring Storm Ophelia over the past few days.

"The storm, which is expected to continue to affect our region until early afternoon, has caused some disruption on parts of our network but our staff were ready to respond. 

"We’d like to reassure those still affected that we will continue to work until all customers have their power restored.

The company is reminding customers that its website, northernpowergrid.com, has a power cut map and reporting service which customers can use to log a power cut, get real-time updates and find advice about what to do in a power cut.