A moorland blaze on Lewis has stretched local fire-
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-
Initially, beaters from the two Stornoway fire crews were used to try and contain
the fire line until reinforcements arrived from Shawbost. A fire-
Negotiating the difficult terrain with rough, broken ground with waist-
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-
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-
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.”
Fire crews battle wildfire by Lews Castle grounds 10/7/14
