Northern Ireland Outdoors Forum - Hiking, camping and more
Outdoor Activities => Other => Topic started by: fatty-arbuckle on April 24, 2010
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Forty firefighters are dealing with a major gorse fire in the Mourne Mountains in County Down.
The Fire Service were called to the blaze at Annalong Wood near Newcastle at about 0500 BST.
Walkers are being warned to avoid the Slieve Binnion, Bloody Bridge and Dinny Water areas because of the fire.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/8641535.stm
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Theres not going to be much left to walk over but burnt ash if this keeps up!
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I was there. :o
http://thisteacherslife.wordpress.com/2010/04/24/frightening/
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I was there. :o
I
http://thisteacherslife.wordpress.com/2010/04/24/frightening/
nice blog makes ya jealous that I was not there. Your spot on with your comment at the end and I hope all this rain that's falling now will help soak the ground and stop who ever is doing it
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The Fire Service were called to the blaze at Annalong Wood near Newcastle at about 0500 BST.
Strange that the fire service was only called out at 5am, but from nematode's description it was burning through the night. (perhaps they were waiting for first light?) That does make a bit more sense...couldn't see the muppets setting fire to the hills at 5am...more likely late at night when the drink runs out and they get board.
As it turned out I was cutting through Annalong Wood on Saturday morning at 10am, (I actively avoid the news when I can, so didn't know anything about that fire until I got home) did notice a fair number of burnt trees but no burnt grass, so I presumed that it was old...that Wood always looks a bit 'battered'. No sign of smoke/burning smell etc, but the hills did look very foggy, which I put down to the relativity low temperature.
The main camping area wasn't touched by the fire which is good.
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So how bad is the damage at Annalong Wood?
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So how bad is the damage at Annalong Wood?
No idea to be honest.did notice a fair number of burnt trees but no burnt grass, so I presumed that it was old...that Wood always looks a bit 'battered'. No sign of smoke/burning smell etc.......(snip)....The main camping area wasn't touched by the fire which is good.
I wasn't looking for it and only cut through the very end of the wood. Didn't take any photos that day either, can't remember anything out of the ordinary.
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From my understanding.......
The fire services were alerted at roughly 5pm on Friday night (we know the people who rang the fire brigade). The fire service arrived via the access road in Annalong Wood to assess the situation (as this was the location of those who called). The fires were in a ribbon very high up on Slieve Binnian and I think they considered the location to be a risk at night so they opted for first light.
The fire seemed to start very high up near the Mourne Wall, maybe about three quarters up the wall that runs from Big Carrick to Binnian Summit. From our perspective down in the valley the fare seemed to rapidly spread in ribbons past Binnian Lough (although hidden from us the area of Binnian Lough was glowing very bright red) to Blue Lough Butress. In the early hours of the morning the area below the north tor (Blue Lough butress) was very much on fire and patches flared very brightly.
As we left the valley (10 ish) Carrick Little had been taken over by a massive operation by the fire service and coast guard. this included maybe 6 or 7 appliances, an incident command unit and a coast guard helicopter. I got the impression that they had been working since first light. It was a sickenning and depressing sight.
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I just realised how misleading the picures in my blog post are. They were not intended as a before and after. They were taken from two different locations of two different directions. Let me clarify; the picture below is Slieve Binnian and the North Tor taken from the Annalong River where it enters the wood (ish).
(http://www.chemistrypanel.co.uk/pics/SlieveBinnian.png)
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Whoa! :o Looks like I get 0/10 for observation. Thanks for confirming nematode.
If anyone else wants to pass their thanks to the Fire service, this seems to be the place to do it (http://www.nifrs.org/feedback.php?sec=5974). A donation to the The Mourne Mountain Rescue Team (http://www.mmrt.org.uk/donations.html) would do no harm if you have a couple of quid spare.