General Chat

Seems one person has been arrested for starting a fire. What kind 8f person would do such a stupid, crazy, dangerous thing?

It will take years for things to get back to anything like it was before. I do wonder if any evidence will surface regarding Brady and Hindley's victim, the little boy Keith.

Lizx

That was what I was worried about, Liz (once I'd heard people were safe, although evacuated). Things like bank-nesting bees, lizards etc. too.

Seems four lads are suspected of starting the original fire. All the wildlife that has been murdered because they have nowhere to go, skylark nests apparently were on the moors so baby birds gone, it's tragic.

Now another fire has started in the area. So sad

Lizx

I can see your theory about 'scramble'/dirt bikes, Sylvia.

Often people throwing cigarettes from cars when land was tinderbox-dry were often blamed.

The buckets/scoops used here are similar, made of lighter material than a normal bucket of course, Sylvia.

You are right about slow growth regeneration where peat is concerned as it has been used for fuel for centuries. It was neatly sliced through into brick-like structures but flatter, wider and longer than a housebrick. There are still places where you can see the peat has been dug out. I am sure you will have seen them.

What really helps in a treetop-jumping or otherwise-spreading raging fire is of course, rain.

One of our children is due to travel through that area tomorrow. Since she has seen Aussie fires from her bedroom window and has been on Zante a few times when fires were raging, I am expecting her to remember what she learnt when she was young. A wide detour is the best defence ..... and definitely, definitely no sightseeing!

I wonder whether the firefighters at Saddleworth will get any sleep now that the forces have been drafted in. I can remember our neighbour's son sleeping by the roadside in Oz and all who did that were extremely exhausted as the Saddleworth people will also be.

it isn't the air force that has these planes, nor are they expected to help.

The army was called in during last year's fires in BC, but they were used as an adjunct to the police (RCMP) keeping people out of evacuated areas, patrolling said areas to prevent looting, and behind the lines support for the fire fighters.

Private companies have the planes, and lease them out to the provincial governments.

Google Martin Mars bombers ............ these were the first air water bombers

http://www.martinmars.com/


The province hires and trains forest firefighters to bolster a very small permanent force. The "extras" are on call from April on.

I think the UK might have to start thinking .......

......... if we really are in climate change, your weather of the last 2 or 3 years is not going to change, which means you are likely to have many more fire events such as on Saddleworth,

I see one theory for its origin is sparks from underneath what we call ATVs or motorcycles used to run around on moorland or in forested areas. If that is true, then folk will not stop using those things, even in hot dry weather.

UK doesn't have those Sylvia because a fire like this is a very rare occurrence.

The RAF doesn't have squadrons of aircraft these days.

They are lucky to find enough army to help.

The plant life might not regenerate quickly .................

if the fire is very hot, it will burn the soil as well as the plant material. This happened in some parts of the huge fires we had last summer in BC. Basically all that is left is ash, no nutrients, etc.

If the fire gets down into the peat, it will burn for months or years, that peat has taken centuries to develop.

Joy ..............

we use helicopters that have a HUGE bucket dangling form a long line, scoops up water from a lake, then drop it over a fire.

We have airplane tankers ........ huge planes that have been adapted or specially built with doors in their bellies, so they can skim the surface of a lake and scoop up water into their "bellies", the doors then close, a fire suppressant is added and the the plane flies over the fire, belly doors open and the water + suppressant is dropped over the fire.


Some photos in this Wiki article ........

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerial_firefighting


Canada and the US both have fleets of these 2 types, and they have been sent down to Australia during their fire season (our winter).

It's quite the sight!!

They are using helicopters Sylvia, scooping up water from reservoirs to drop on land in the same way that they scoop water from the sea to drop on Zakynthos fires.

Have they not used tankers? Often they and their miles of hosing are more susceptible to jumping fires though. (Is that the kind of tanker you mean?)

No doubt they'll be back-burning too to try to contain the fires.

Life, of course, will take precedence as plant life will regenerate fairly quickly.

No water tankers??

No helicopters with large buckets????

Perhaps we should send you proper air water support for attacking fires!

My sentiments also Mersey <3 <3

Thinking of all those around the area and those helping out <3 <3

The RAF are now doing the job we see them all too often doing here, helicopters dropping water from slings. :-(

when we have forest fires here, the fire often disappears underground, will lie there over the winter but then flare up again in the spring ............. the same thing could happen on the moors

It could, Sylvia. They may have to get diggers in when the top fire's out.

The peat fire could smoulder away for months.

But not the famous grouse shooters

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/27/moors-grouse-shooting-saddleworth-fire-sport-land

The army has been brought in, now. :-(

Where the surface fire has been put out, the peat is still burning underground. What is really needed is a jolly good spell of torrential rain to dampen things down.