And not in a good way…

I was there Wednesday eve and there was a decent sized grass fire, the. Brigade were straight on it with ground crews and a helicopter.

But it seems to have caught fire again last night and still burning. 5 hectares ablaze at the moment (haven’t a clue how big that is). It’s the trees above Twrch just after the steep concrete slab up to the Forest Drive cross-over.

From Faceache

This is burning right now. The Twrch XC trail is up on the left, with the Forest Drive (uplift road) just above that on the tree line.

Forest fire at Cwmcarn Saturday 14th July 2018

This is burning right now. The Twrch XC trail is up on the left, with the Forest Drive (uplift road) just above that on the tree line.

Posted by Cwmdown mtb uplifts on Saturday, July 14, 2018

and earlier

“Hi All, URGENT MESSAGE. Please note that all the bike trails and footpaths on site are currently closed at the request of South Wales fire brigade. They are currently fighting a large forest fire on the sirhowy valley and they fear it could spread. Please note that this is for your own safety. The valley floor is safe but please no wandering into the forest or grasslands. We will post when we receive further details.”

Hi All, URGENT MESSAGE. Please note that all the bike trails and footpaths on site are currently closed at the request…

Posted by Cwmcarn Forest Drive on Friday, July 13, 2018

Not good, but doesn’t surprise me at all. Saw two clowns on Monday night with a “camp fire” on the edge of the Wenallt playing field/woods, can’t believe how stupid people can be.

Was ablaze above Cwmcelyn Monday evening and had been for a while.

Traced to the usual idiots from above mentioned Estate

Looks bad. Hopefully be on top of it soon

Eh? What happened to the farmer video I was just laughing my head off at? Got a link for that, I want to send it to a mate?

what a nightmare.

I used to work as a forestry contractor up that way a lot 20 yrs ago and spent a lot of the summer of 1995 scouting out or working on forest fires across the valleys.

I remember spending nights sitting in a landrover on a firebreak that had been bulldozed into the hillside watching that the fire didn’t cross the dirt firebreak. all around us on a number of the other hills you could see orange glows of other fires. All started by kids….

It costs a small fortune dealing with this stuff. At least due to the number of fires they have to deal with the South Wales fire service are pretty experienced at this stuff.

I also spent a lot of time planting trees on those cleared areas. Steep as hell. Heartbreaking when they went up in smoke.

Huge drain on resourses and fire men and women having to work long hours in the heat and smoke, theres also a ll the extra costs in fuel .refreshments and  maintenance of the vehicles involved, not to mention  engines not available for other  fires.

Photos of the aftermath have started to appear online:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1535022616712869/permalink/2092132884335170/

Look like a lot of serious damage has happened so it’s going to take a while to get the place up and running again by the looks of it.

Sadly I don’t think it’s ‘out out’ yet, it flared up again this morning.

Rather selfishly I don’t think the XC trails will be too badly affected, it didn’t touch Cafal and Twrch, where the fire was, as best as I can tell, has been completely felled,.