Royal Navy helps fight Dumfriesshire fire

SCORES of firefighters and forestry workers were last night redoubling their efforts to put out a huge blaze on hills overlooking the Solway Firth.

The moorland fire, one of the most serious in south-west Scotland in living memory, has ravaged large swathes of land in an area around ten miles south of Dumfries, and has spread quickly in the unseasonably dry and hot weather conditions.

More than 40 firefighters were at the scene yesterday evening, with the fire service using the “last resort” of calling in a Royal Navy Sea King search and rescue helicopter from Perth and Kinross to help transport staff and water around the isolated region.

It had been hoped that Forestry Commission Scotland would be able to deploy a civilian helicopter to douse water over the site, but no such aircraft were available in Scotland or the north of England yesterday.

Chief Fire Officer Colin Scott of Dumfries and Galloway Fire & Rescue said he hoped his personnel would be able to bring the blaze under control by nightfall.

He also confirmed it had started after deliberate heather burning got out of control.

He said: “It’s a significant fire in an area popular with hillwalkers, so along with the police we’re trying to make sure the public aren’t at risk.

“It was so-called controlled burning which got out of control. I don’t know the exact details but that’s what caused it.

“The helicopter is ferrying staff around the hillside, getting them quickly to the other side of the fire’s fronts. It’s a military helicopter which isn’t equipped for deploying water.”

Such was the scale of the blaze that the flames at Drumburn Hill, near Criffel, were visible for several miles, with eyewitness reports coming in from Dumfries and Workington in Cumbria.

On Monday evening, more than 30 officers from the Dumfries, Dalbeattie, Annan, and Thornhill units of Dumfries and Galloway Fire & Rescue were out in force trying to tackle the fire, but they were pulled out by nightfall for their own safety. A unit from Strathclyde Fire & Rescue also provided assistance.

A special control centre has been set up at Ardwall Mains, near New Abbey.

No-one has been injured in the incident, as the area is sparsely populated, and no property is thought to have been damaged. So far, the fire has been confined to grass, heather, and shrubs, with hundreds of acres of land burnt out, but there are fears a change in wind direction could cause it to spread to a forest at Boreland Hill, Southwick.

Bill Coombes, the Forestry Commission’s environmental officer said: “We are trying to source helicopter cover in case the fire spreads into nearby forests or the wind changes.

“We would have to bring such machines from Inverness or Cumbernauld, but we want to have something on standby.”

Because of the remoteness of the area, the Forestry Commission is bringing in four-wheel-drive machines and quad bikes to try and get equipment several hundred feet up the hillside.

Residents have reported ash from the hillside fire covering their cars several miles away, while others posted pictures and videos of the blaze online.

Dumfries resident Julian Gillespie said yesterday: “It started some time [on Monday] afternoon. Around 4pm the fire brigade arrived, I saw about six appliances. They left by about 10:30pm last night because it was getting too dark and dangerous.

“It’s still going this morning, ash was falling on my car seven miles away in Dumfries.”

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