Major fire in forest

Major fire in forest 

27May 2005

publishedby  http://new.edp24.co.uk 


Twelve fire crews have been tackling a major forest fire this afternoon as temperatures rose in the region.

The fire in Thetford Forest, just north of the B1107, had already spread across several hectares before it was spotted at around 2pm. Firefighters arrived to find flames leaping up the trees and a plume of smoke high into the sky.

Around 15 acres of Scots and Corsican pine trees were affected, in what is thought to be the largest fire in the forest for the last two years.

Assistant Divisional Officer Pat Dacey said: “When we arrived it was a well-developed fire. The dry gorse and bracken were alight and where you have got dead branches at the bottom of the trees, they were burning. The flames were reaching about halfway up the trees.”

There were warnings to take care in hot weather as emergency services brace themselves for more fires over the bank holiday weekend.

Richard Brooke, from the Forestry Commission, said: “At a bank holiday weekend in this dry weather it is almost a sure fire thing that there will be some kind of fire. This is bigger than we would normally get. It very much depends how quickly they are spotted.”

Crews were expected to remain on site into the evening damping down hotspots and making sure the fire does not break out again.


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