Firefighters put out big gorse fire

10:04am Wednesday 14th May 2008

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Firefighters fought to control a raging gorse fire which threatened homes near Camborne on Monday evening.

Over 40 fire fighters from Camborne, Redruth, Penzance, Truro, St Ives and Helston were called to the blaze between Roskear and Roscroggan.

At one point the fire had a front half a mile long and crews needed to use high-pressure jets to protect nearby homes threatened by the flames.

The fire broke out at 5.45pm and crews fought the blaze for more than two hours before finally bringing it under control by 8pm.

By 10pm the damping down was complete and the last of the crews left the scene.

Over three hectares of gorse were burnt during the fire.

A fire brigade spokesperson said at this stage they were treating the incident as suspected arson.

She said: "At its height it was quite a difficult task due to the prevailing wind and the height of the gorse.

"Land Rovers were needed due to access problems in the area, with crews needing to travel down farm tracks and footpaths to reach the fire.

"Crews also used portable pumps to draw water from the Red River to help fight the fire."

She said at the same time there were a number of smaller gorse fires breaking out with neighbours reporting they had seen kids setting them.

She said this stretched their resources, as they had to send crews off to extinguish them at regular intervals.

A police spokesman said they had no information how the fire initially started and at this stage were not treating it as arson.

However, they had had reports of children setting fires in the area and had received a call at 6pm from contractors working on a bridge on the A30 nearby.

He said: "At this point the fire was well alight and the report said kids were lighting areas of gorse in and around the area."

Engineers from Western Power attended the scene for two hours on Monday evening to check for damage to electrical poles and power lines however nothing was damaged during the fire.

Crews from Camborne and Redruth returned to the scene at 9am on Tuesday morning to extinguish a small fire which had re-ignited in the same area.

A fire brigade spokesperson said as the area was still smouldering and because of the dry condition fire fighters from Camborne were continuing to check the area regularly.

No-one was hurt during the incident.