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Photos:  Stornoway wildfire

 

A moorland blaze on Lewis has stretched local fire-fighting resources.

 

Most of the island’s fire crews were at the fire on moorland outside the Lews Castle Grounds near the Arnish fabrication yard.

 

Fanned by the north easterly breeze, the flames split over separate areas creating extra problems for fire-fighters effectively tackling two separate blazes.

 

Initially, beaters from the two Stornoway fire crews were used to try and contain the fire line until reinforcements arrived from Shawbost.  A fire-appliance from Tarbert, some 50 miles away, was also summoned to the scene.

 

Negotiating the difficult terrain with rough, broken ground with waist-high heather and peppered with hidden holes underfoot, presented additional hazards for the 21 fire-fighters who aimed water jets on the flames.

 

The wildfire burnt through heavy bracken, up a craggy hill and continued through the heather down the other side, destroying a copse of trees in its path and headed towards a row of wooden hydro poles.

 

On the left flank, closer to the Arnish side, flames damaged young woodland and bushes.  With no lochs nearby, water had to be pumped some 400 metres from the roadside and a Stornoway Trust forestry worker used a quad to carry extra hoses out to fire-fighters.

 

Steve Oliver, Stornoway fire station commander,said battling today’s wildfire was “fairly heavy going. The ground is undulating and its quite hard work for fire-fighters out there.”

 

The “limited water supply” and distance from the road made it “quite difficult” to tackle, he added.

 

“It was a well established wildfire involving bracken and long grass. It also entered some fairly mature woodland.”

 

He explained: “We had four appliances and we started off using beaters to try and control the fire until we got more resources here.”

After reinforcements arrived they moved to “using lines of jets.”

 

Photos:  Stornoway wildfire

Fire crews battle wildfire by Lews Castle grounds      10/7/14