Firestarters

Dry heather, tonnes of peat fuel....and a disposable barbecue...? Burbage Moor in flames last night.

The Burbage Moor fire at its height on Tuesday night - Photo by South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue

Yesterday evening, just before dusk maybe, a couple of folk (let’s call them Buffoon 1 and Buffoon 2) decided to go for a stroll up to the Ox Stones on Burbage Moor, just beyond the Lady Canning’s plantation.

(Their names come from one of the more polite descriptions of their actions given by a moorland firewatching volunteer I met today, in the aftermath.)

“Why not make a night of it?” said Buffoon 1. “I’ll call for a barbecue on the way up.”

There was a brisk wind at the Ox Stones, so the Buffoons found shelter by a nearby rock, lit their disposable barbecue in a nest of heather and enjoyed their evening. Sometime later, either as they watched or after they’d left with the remains of the barbecue, the heather and peat heated by their evening amusement caught fire and carried by the wind, set the moor ablaze.

South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue estimate shifts of 30 firefighters at a time from South Yorkshire and Derbyshire fire services were on duty throughout the night trying to control the blaze, along with staff from land managers the Eastern Moors Partnership.

The day after - fire crews trying to damp down the smouldering peat

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After hearing the fire was under control, I walked up to try and find the fire site today, described last night as being at Lady Cannings itself, to the alarm of the city’s mountain biking, running, walking and dog walking communities. (I later discovered Lady Cannings was the description used by the fire service to try and keep sightseers away from the blaze, since few know the exact location of Burbage Moor, where the fire actually was.)

I met National Park ranger Tom Lewis just beyond the Ox Stones, along with a volunteer firewatcher friend, who’d seen the blaze the previous evening. The moor to the west of the Ox Stones was black and still smouldering in places, and through the smoke we could pick out the firefighters almost a kilometre away, damping down the far reaches of the blackened moor.

“Do you know how it started?” I asked Tom. He wouldn’t say officially, as the fire service hadn’t yet made their offical assessment.

“We’ll show you,” they said, and we picked our way to where the blackened peat pointed like an arrow at a small black rectangle, exactly the size and shape of a portable barbecue.

The spot (near the rock) where the fire most likely started.

“We think it started here,” said Tom, before he and the firewatching volunteer explained how a natural fire would burn backwards to some extent, into the prevailing wind, whereas a fire in a barbecue would only heat the windward side. East of the black rectangle, away from where the fire was blown onto the moor, a shoot of bilberry was still green and growing.

The barbecue-shaped charred ground on the far eastern edge of the blackened moor.

A couple of ducks flew overhead, and circled, and we saw a crow flying down to pick at the remains of birds or lizards or other animals burned to death by the fire.

You need to think about the insects and plants and the rest of the ecosystem destroyed by the fire, said the volunteer, not just the glamorous birds and beasts. (He didn’t want to be named, not least since he’d just had a week of unpleasant conversations with people telling him to **** off and leave them alone when they were trying to light fires or start barbecues in the dry countryside.)

A special water-carrying off roader and a firefighter appeared a few hundred yards away, near patches of smoke rising from the moor. This operation will have cost hundreds of thousands of pounds, said the volunteer.

Ringinglow Road was closed for much of Wednesday west of Ringinglow village

We discussed how so many members of the public have no idea how combustible moorland is. For some people, barbecues are what you do when you go out with friends or family, and many visitors have not yet heard that fires and barbecues are illegal in Peak District open countryside.

The advice Tom Lewis gives is to contact the offical Firestoppers line on 0800 1695558 if you think a barbecue or open fire is about to begin, or to just call 999 if a fire has actually started. Only say something to the firestarters themselves if you feel there’s no risk involved, said the volunteer, from personal experience.

It might be an idea for supermarkets and shops selling barbecues to mention the risks at the point of sale too, they said. Tom noted that portable barbecues are not sold in the Peak District itself.

I walked further out into the blackened heather, where small pools of water had settled after the firefighters’ work the night before. The drifting plumes of smoke showed how the fire can remain deep in the peat for days, so the fire can restart if the weather warms up again. The peat was sandy where it had burned: you could feel the heat with your bare hand.

And there was a scorched broken duck egg, still greenish after the fire. One of the parents flew over again. “It’s got no idea what to do now,” said the firewatching volunteer.

This moorland was a fragile, protected landscape, a site of special scientific interest, and the home for many thousands of birds, lizards, animals and insects. And it looks like almost a kilometre long patch of it was scorched to lifelessness by a single bought barbecue. Or more accurately, by someone who thought it was a good idea to buy it and light it on a dry country night in the Peak District.

Many moorland lovers feel this is a warning, like the other ongoing fires on moors all around the Peak District. Periods of very dry weather are likely to be increasingly common in coming years, so we all need to be better educated about the risks. Sunlight through bottles, warmed up cans, and dropped cigarettes can all start huge moorland fires, as well as the barbecues sold by your indifferent local supermarket.

And the dry trees of Lady Cannings may have escaped this week, but if a buffoon arrived there at the wrong time in the wrong weather, there’s every chance they could go up in flames one day too.

Lady Cannings - still here

Countryside advice from South Yorkshire Fire Service:

• Do not use disposable BBQs

• No campfires

• Dispose of cigarettes carefully

• Take all your litter home

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