Wildfire in Cairngorms raises concerns over resources
A community council leader in the Cairngorms has said lessons have not been learned from a “devastating” previous wildfire in the area, as a near four-mile long stretch of the countryside went up in flames. Sandy McCook, chairman of the Nethy Bridge and vicinity community council, described the situation as “very concerning” and claimed there was a lack of resources to deal with the fire.
McCook spoke to the Press Association on Thursday as firecrews remained at the scene of the wildfire, which broke out at lunchtime on Wednesday and is now affecting a 3.7-mile wide area of heather and trees. The wildfire started in heathland at Ryvoan Bothy, near Nethy Bridge, late on Wednesday morning.
Potential threat to Caledonian pine forest
McCook expressed fears about the potential consequences if the wind were to change direction. “While at the moment Nethy is upwind of it, and the smoke is being blown away from the village and the forest, if the wind was to change and if the fire was to change direction, it could be back into the forest. And as you see, we’ve got thousands of acres of prime Caledonian pine forest. The mind boggles just at the consequences of it,” he said.
A strict cordon remains in place, and people have been warned not to travel to the area or attempt to access Glenmore Forest Park, Loch Morlich, or the surrounding area while firefighting operations are ongoing.
Comparison to previous wildfires
The fire near Glenmore has come one year after widespread wildfires hit the Carrbridge and Dava areas of northern Scotland in June and early July. When combined, those fires became the largest such event in Scotland’s history, burning more than 11,000 hectares of moorland and forestry. McCook said the lessons learned from the “devastating” wildfires in Dava last year “haven’t been put into practice”. He added: “We are seeing exactly the same situation.”
Call for national fire facility
McCook has called for the development of a national fire facility to help respond to wildfires, like the one burning in the Cairngorms, more quickly. “We need a national facility for situations like this, where there’s always something (available),” he said. “If a helicopter had been here and available within, let’s say, an hour of the fire starting yesterday, the fire could have been out a couple of hours after it started, but now here we are, and it’s 24 hours since it started, and it’s still spreading.”
He added: “The fire service is understaffed, under-resourced, with not enough equipment that we need to have facility to get helicopters in much earlier. So, my answer to the politicians, those in power, would be listen to the local people in Nethy Bridge, Abernethy, Glenmore, and other areas of the Highlands that have been badly hit by fire. Listen to what they say, not to what your so-called advisers or your other fellow politicians say. Listen to local common sense.”
The Scottish Government’s Justice Secretary Neil Gray has said the fire service “has confirmed they have adequate resources committed to this incident”.
