Cycling through a local wood at 1am, like yer do, I came across a small fire surrounded by beer cans and rubbish.
It was on the edge of a stone track, up against a tree with dry bracken nearby.
There was a stationary car with it’s headlights on on the road, about 200m away.

While I was wondering whether I should;
ignore it, because it would probably go out on it’s own
try stamping it out with a pair of cycling shoes that cost nearly £100
ride towards the car to try to get the reg number
or phone 999
the car drove away.

I phoned the fire service and hung around on the road till they got there to show them where it was.
By the time they arrived and we walked to the fire, it was just embers.
I felt a bit embarrassed about calling them out for something so trivial. Even with all the stories in the news recently about fires getting out of control I think I may have over reacted.
On the other hand, I’d feel even worse if I rode through there tomorrow and half the wood was burnt down, knowing I could have prevented it.

So, is there a rule of thumb for calling the fire service out ? How big a fire does it need to be ?

I can’t speak for anyone else, nor for the fire brigade, but we get countless calls from people which turn out to be nothing or not require our attention, but if they’re made in good faith then we never criticise people for it. It gets closed down as a ‘false call – good intent’.

As long as you don’t embellish the situation I don’t think you should be criticised – after all, they’re the experts on fires, not you.

I.e. ‘there’s a huge fire and OMG the whole woods about to burn down’ – you’d get a funny look for that, but ‘look, I don’t know if you need to bother with this or not, but there’s a small fire lit under the trees and all the undergrowth around it is very dry’ – perfectly reasonable call to make IMO.

I’d rather turn up to thatt than a good going forest/grass fire. A small camp fire can get deep seated into peat and smoulder for days unnoticed, a change in weather conditions can reignite it.

Well done for staying around to show where the fire is.

Driving back from Sunderland over the A66 on Tuesday and was surprised at the number of smoke plumes over the moors. I know it’s unseasonably warm but is it that dry?

Wee.

Land owners do a lot of controlled burning at this time of year. That maybe what you were seeing. Some do get a bit bigger than they intended

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-17540215

uselesshippy – Member

Wee.

What in 100 quid cycling shoes 😮

Better to save it for the shoes of your enemy!

I don’t suppose there is a non emergency number for the Fire Service…

I’d still ring personally and let them decide.

I know a few years back there were a few fires on the local moors around us. It would be thought that the fires were out then they would spark up again a few days later as apparently the fire can remain in place in the peat.

If they thought you were out of order I am sure they would have told you?

Thanks for the reassurance that I did the right thing.
I work and commute by bike in the middle of the night, so a couple of times I’ve seen odd stuff and dialled the 0300 333 3000 number to get a non-emergency response from the police.
There’s no equivalent number for the fire service though, it’s either a big truck with a six man crew, or nothing.

thegreatape, that’s pretty much exactly what I said on the phone.

bruneep, the flames were not visible from the road. I thought I’d better hang around or else they could easily go to the wrong gate and waste time searching every track in the area.

I’m came a across a chav fire a few years back. Put it out 🙂

Came back the next day and thing had started again and was burning away underground. I really had a go at stopping it and was growing like a virus. Once again I thought we had won. Came back again a day or two later and guess what it was still smouldering and spreading.

This time we dug a trench around it and scrapped the edges and dumped gallons of water from a nearby horse trough via some old plastic bottles we found.

This time we defeated it.

By the way the ground was very rich and a heavy layer pine needles and yew.

Personally if your in doubt get the brigade involved. I dread to think if the fire I dealt with really got away from us.

Depends on the ambient temperature.

Land owners do a lot of controlled burning at this time of year. That maybe what you were seeing. Some do get a bit bigger than they intended

I drove past some controlled gorse burning on the moors a week or so ago.

Just how the two guys with beaters were planning on controlling the several hectares of 20ft high flames I’m not sure.

considering the damage to swinley forest last year i’m gunna be calling out the fire brigade at any sign of smoke!

I came across a heather/grass fire some kids had lit in the Pentland hills a couple of years ago, along with another random guy we managed to put it out though it took quite a while and it spread alarmingly quickly, was really hard work.

Kids were waiting in the trees by the track with tennis rackets and fired stones as I went past, presume they were waiting for the fire brigade, little turds.

Anyway the ranger service said we should have left it and called the fire brigade, they have a quick response system (!) or something set up with the police as during the summer they have 3-4 fires a week lit by kids. I can see why they would want the fire brigade to deal with it to be honest, it spread so fast, so I wouldn’t worry about calling them.

A big fire eh?

The little black spec in the circle over to the left is my mate.

That was started quite accidentally and spread at an alarming rate despite three of us beating it down using plastic bivi sacks. Scary to see how fast it could take hold. Luckily, there are no houses or buildings nearby.

Have seen a gorse fire grow from a small puff of smoke to 20ft high flames in under 10 minutes. Was scary how intense it got so quickly.
Very dry conditions and a slight breeze were all it took.

If it had been on soil rather than peat, I’d have put it out. If it had been in the open with nothing nearby I’d probably just have broken it up and let it die.

hanks for the reassurance that I did the right thing.
I work and commute by bike in the middle of the night, so a couple of times I’ve seen odd stuff and dialled the 0300 333 3000 number to get a non-emergency response from the police.
There’s no equivalent number for the fire service though, it’s either a big truck with a six man crew, or nothing.

It was still a fire therefore 999 call. You dont want to go down the non emergency no route. We will always attend calls within a certain time frame, not so with the non emergency no used by police. The boys and girls in the control room do a great job filtering the non emergency calls ie “locked out of your house” call a locksmith, “burst pipe” call a plumber.

Somebodies house burnt down yesterday in South Wales and the power cables where destroyed to a village, so no power, for a few days, all from a grass fire.

Always ring the fire brigade, fire spreads fast,and let them decide who to send to put it out.

Funny you should say that – I had a similar experience on the Malverns the other day. Small fire on British Camp. Phoned 999 from the nearby pub (I’d left my phone at work, and was by myself). I reckon it probably went out by itself in the end, but better safe than sorry. I’ve seen some pretty big fires on the hills, and I’m no expert.

Oh and lets say a big thankyou to the the fire service personnel, who will probably be very hard working in the few weeks as all the brush and forest fires, and all the mupets who habve stotred gallons of fuel in their houses and sheds catch fire.

Easter hols coming up as well. Plentry of time for the lovely darlings to have a play around with fires

There’s no equivalent number for the fire service though, it’s either a big truck with a six man crew, or nothing.

I guess it’s either on fire or it’s not. Now living in Australia, I have a new and somewhat eye-opening knowledge of what fire can do, and more to the point, just how quickly it can do it.

Whereas if someone’s smashed a window, stolen your laptop, then legged it, the blues and twos aren’t going to replace the laptop, but someone might be able to pop round later to take the details.

I had a similar experience in Tilgate Forest last summer: I was riding the DH trails there and moved onto one at the far end of the available land. I got to the bottom and there was a plume of smoke rising from the forest floor about 20m away. I wandered over and the ground was smouldering away beneath the surface, over an area of around 3m2.

I thought that it might put itself out eventually, but I then noticed that it was spreading so I phoned the FB.

To my embarrassment they came out with two land rovers and a full-size fire appliance. I raced the two LRs down the fire road to show them where it was and they donnned jet packs (read water packs) and put it out (the actual location of the fire was about 25-30m from the fire road). It took them about 15mins to put it out and one of them said he would drive out later to make sure it hadn’t re-ignited.

I did mention that I was a bit unsure whether to call them or not, but they wouldn’t have it and said that I was right to.

I came across a the smouldering remains of a fire in a local wood before, tried to put it out fully but no luck so rung the fire brigade. They arrived and I walked in to show them where it was. They used some portable camelbak systems and then broom type things. Not that exciting and it may have gone out by itself eventually but not worth risking…

And perfect timing, fires already strating in Swinley

http://www.getbracknell.co.uk/news/s/2111088_fire_at_swinley_forest

there’s been a massive blase at cwmcarn last night