Disaster UK wildfires now a major incident - Two fires are merging, one fire likely intentional

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So I know the UK's Wild fires may not be news to many Outside of the UK or anyone inside the M25, especially when you compare it to others like in the US last year but this is a MI for the UK and one we are not exactly prepared for because we don't get natural disasters like this.

It looks like at least one of the fires was started intentionally as well and is pretty bad for the local biosphere as there is a lot of endangered species like windflowers and certain bird species that were starting to do OK again that have just had there breeding season interrupted at best of nests and egg's destroyed entirely at worst.
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Well shit, if that second fire was intentionally set, prepare to need a license to use fire now. Even if it wasn't, better make citizens get one anyways, just in case.
 
Raging wildfires without trees.

Learn something new every day with these interwebs.
 
Semper Fi to all our unarmed firemen :jaceknife:

But for reals tho
 
Ravenor said:
Plenty shockingly, we are not as over developed (well ouside of the SE) as people think.
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Do they do preventative backburning there? I know the UK isn't as bad for fires as the Hell Fire Island you sent your best people to, but it works somewhat here, at least to allow for firebreaks. Either way, I hope they catch the person who deliberately lit the other one and give them a good Chloe Sagal-ing.
 
The stunning Vale of Rheidol in Wales is on fire too. To the point the lovely little tourist railway that runs through it has had to suspend all operations right at the start of tourist season and after it's been sinking large amounts of money into various improvements and investments.

The wildfires in Lancashire have now merged and is now considered the single largest wildfire for some 239 years. It remains completely uncontained and the army is being called in increasingly to tackle it.
 
heathercho said:
Do they do preventative backburning there? I know the UK isn't as bad for fires as the Hell Fire Island you sent your best people to, but it works somewhat here, at least to allow for firebreaks. Either way, I hope they catch the person who deliberately lit the other one and give them a good Chloe Sagal-ing.
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It's never normally this bad, normally it's one or two small flair ups during the arse end of July and till about the middle of august most of them a single engine is able to deal with but something like this is a once in ever 10 - 20 year event as @Ponderous Pillock said -

Ponderous Pillock said:
The wildfires in Lancashire have now merged and is now considered the single largest wildfire for some 239 years. It remains completely uncontained and the army is being called in increasingly to tackle it.
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This is the largest in nearly 240 years, and at least one of them was intentionally started.

Ponderous Pillock said:
The stunning Vale of Rheidol in Wales is on fire too. To the point the lovely little tourist railway that runs through it has had to suspend all operations right at the start of tourist season and after it's been sinking large amounts of money into various improvements and investments.
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That really sucks man, I know the railway will survive but it's a kick in the teeth when they have spent so much money on the improvements. I just hope your ones are able to be controlled better than the ones up here as they are starting to get really bad as you said they are starting to call up all the engines they can from the MOD in the form of the Green Goddess and some other ones from farther afield are being asked to assist.
 
Ravenor said:
It's never normally this bad, normally it's one or two small flair ups during the arse end of July and till about the middle of august most of them a single engine is able to deal with but something like this is a once in ever 10 - 20 year event as @Ponderous Pillock said -



This is the largest in nearly 240 years, and at least one of them was intentionally started.



That really sucks man, I know the railway will survive but it's a kick in the teeth when they have spent so much money on the improvements. I just hope your ones are able to be controlled better than the ones up here as they are starting to get really bad as you said they are starting to call up all the engines they can from the MOD in the form of the Green Goddess and some other ones from farther afield are being asked to assist.
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That is really awful. I can see how they'd be different from Australian bushfires now, because this isn't a dry scrub issue, it seems much, much more. The peat in the moorlands is going to make this a nightmare to deal with, I assume.
 
heathercho said:
That is really awful. I can see how they'd be different from Australian bushfires now, because this isn't a dry scrub issue, it seems much, much more. The peat in the moorlands is going to make this a nightmare to deal with, I assume.
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That's one of the main issues in some areas, once the fire get's underground the only thing that's really able to put it out is a rise in the water table so you will be dealing the flair ups for months untill then.

It's a case here of we either rapidly contain it soon or be prepaid for a long term firefighting exercise for the next few months, and considering the fact this is supposedly going to be the hottest summer for a very long time and one of the driest ones too we can't expect much of a helping hand from the weather apart from the odd shower maybe stopping a few small flair ups.
 
Most of the Green Goddesses were disposed of back in 2009, being sold to collectors and various African States.

So yes, if we have to call them in it's going to take a while. But if I remember right we still have 120 of the "Red" Goddesses which can at least do motorway speeds.

This is because after 2004 there was a big shift in how the reserves were handled, with older fire engine models being shifted out. The DFRS took on a better role and got some proper equipment in, and various local authorities began to place into reserve various units such as the older Scania and DENNIS built vehicles they had. London alone has some 120 engines in depots on a standby basis, with most local authorities keeping a few engines in reserve here or there.
 
Oh Long Johnson said:
Raging wildfires without trees.

Learn something new every day with these interwebs.
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Prairie fires? Oh yeah, those are a thing.

Forget using the big pumper trucks. Use plows. A D4 Cat pulling a disk is going to be a hell of a lot more effective than a fire engine.

Then use "brush trucks" (4x4 pickups with water tanks) to put out anything that jumps the line.

Good luck, pray for rain, and hope like hell it isn't going to be too windy.
 
Sable said:
If it's bad enough that those things have to be called in then it's really bad.
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Ponderous Pillock said:
Most of the Green Goddesses were disposed of back in 2009, being sold to collectors and various African States.
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There is about 50 or 60 of them still knocking around in stores or use as training viechales. It's easier to summon up a few of them from non active duty units than it is to borrow units from other sources.

Ponderous Pillock said:
This is because after 2004 there was a big shift in how the reserves were handled, with older fire engine models being shifted out. The DFRS took on a better role and got some proper equipment in, and various local authorities began to place into reserve various units such as the older Scania and DENNIS built vehicles they had. London alone has some 120 engines in depots on a standby basis, with most local authorities keeping a few engines in reserve here or there.
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Defra supposedly has a few as well, but by a few I mean like 10 but are for situations like this but I don't think that they have had to be deployed as of yet.

From my understanding they are trying to borrow a lot of spraying tanks from any farms they can to dampen key areas, and are starting to look at strategic breaks to protect critical sites such as Homes, Property and Infrastructure and some really critical nesting sites or other SSSI's, until they have that coverd anything else is best efforts and they think that maybe 24 hours they will be able to expand on that and they are hoping for a heat break on Wednesday and maybe some showers to assist with the damping efforts. The main problem now is the Winds are not helping and are possibly shifting direction later on tonight as well so that wont be helping matters.

ColtWalker1847 said:
Forget using the big pumper trucks. Use plows. A D4 Cat pulling a disk is going to be a hell of a lot more effective than a fire engine.
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Sorry you posted while I did, the problem here is Peat, the fire is starting to spread underground and it can go deep and won't be put out until the water table rises again it's been low for a few years now but the heat so far has really lowered it we need a really couple of godo wet winters to rebuild it not the massive downpoors we have had for the last few years that have been spread out we either need a good old British Drizzle solidly for a few months to really rebuild it.
 
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