A 15-year-old farmer helped fight a wildfire that came within 15 metres of his family's solar panels in Monmouthshire, after firefighters advised removing vegetation to stop the spread.
Blaze escalates near Cwmfelinfach
Ethan Davies-Bunny said his family were alerted to the incident on common land in the Cwmfelinfach area of Mynyddislwyn at around 5am on Monday. What looked like a minor blaze escalated to cover a roughly two-mile area, he told WalesOnline.
The fire came just 15 metres away from his farm's solar panel fields, which are a source of income located just off the common land. Ethan's family runs a sheep farm that uses the common land.
Farmers create firebreak
Firefighters at the scene advised farmers using the land to remove the top layer of vegetation to stop the spread. Ethan said: “We went up to have a look at what was going on and [the] fire service were there. [The fire] then picked up and got worse and worse and worse.”
He added: “The fire brigade told us to remove the top layer of vegetation so there was nothing for the fire to burn, to act as a bit of a barrier. It was just fern and grass up there, some veg and some green - although the drought hasn’t been the best [for crops]. We did it with our tractor.”
Community effort and aftermath
Others joined the effort, including someone from a nearby gun range with a digger, and a neighbouring farmer with a tractor. Ethan said: “The topper gave up on him, the shaft fell off, so we ended up just pushing the top of the soil off. We were out there doing that for about four hours - we ended up doing [about] a mile long of pushing the soil and we gave up.”
Fortunately, the farm had no livestock on the common land at the time, though sheep were grazing in a solar panel field next to the one closest to the fire. Ethan said: “We’ve got solar panels [next to the common] which we rent out to a company and get money for it. We worried that the fire was going to hit the solar panels, but it stopped 15 meters away from them.”
Speaking on Wednesday afternoon, Ethan said he was hopeful the fire had stopped progressing: “We went up there this morning to check what was going on. It looks like the fire has died down and is just smouldering at the top. Through the middle of the hill there may be some little fires still as there is smoke, but that’s pretty much it.”
The cause of the fire is yet to be confirmed. Speaking generally about deliberately started fires, Ethan said: “If you think it’s funny to go around setting fires in this drought, think about the impact it will have on the farmers and the impact it will have on your plate, because you will have nothing. It’s not a fun thing to do.”
Thanking South Wales Fire and Rescue Service, he said: “I want to say thank you to the fire brigade. They did say thank you to us farmers because we did quite a bit up there, but I said: ’No, thank you’, because we wouldn’t have known what to do. We would have started to remove the top soil, but we only have little water bowsers.”
South Wales Fire Rescue Service and Gwent Police have been approached for information to confirm the cause and scale of the fire. Wales has been hit by a series of devastating grass fires this week, including a deliberate fire at a Welsh hospital and a fire in Newbridge that destroyed five homes.
