The cost of tackling the huge wildfire at Holme Fen near Peterborough over the summer could hit three quarters of a million pounds, Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service have revealed.

Firefighters spent a month tackling the fire at the nature reserve in August and September, with crews travelling from across the country to help in the mammoth operation - described as one of the biggest in the history of Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service.

At its peak, the huge blaze saw 100 firefighters and 20 fire engines deployed to the 657 acre site, some of whom had come from as far as Devon, Somerset, Durham, Darlington, London and Merseyside to help local colleagues.

A huge operation was also set up by volunteers in a bid to help the crews, who were working in stifling heat during the record breaking summer.After being called on August 8, the last firefighters finally left the scene on September 9.

While the blaze caused untold damage to plants and animals living in the nature reserve, the financial cost of the operation to tackle the fire has been revealed.In the agenda for the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Fire Authority meeting, due to be held on Wednesday (October 21), the Revenue and Capital Budget Monitoring Report 26/27 says: "Major incident costs relating to the Holme Fen wildfire identified and processed to date are £336k.

“These are costs over and above those that would normally be incurred. This total does not include all the third-party support costs which are yet to be received and/or approved. The overall total is expected to exceed £750k and we expect to be able to reclaim this in the form of a wildfire grant."

Natural England have said there is a strong future for the reserve following the fire.

John Torlesse, Natural England’s Deputy Director for West Anglia, told The Peterborough Telegraph: "The birch, the silver birch that we see around here, that will come back very, very quickly because it's a very quick coloniser of these sorts of soils.

“We don't need to do any replanting as such as we'll find a lot of the vegetation comes back fairly fast, like the birch, the bracken and brambles."

“Longer term, we need to make a decision about whether we want to actually let a place like this stay open, or let that birch come back into a full woodland.“And to think about that, we'll need to consider some of the issues that we faced this year with fire risk, and how we manage those sorts of risks into the long term?"