Cornwall Fire & Rescue Service Newsdesk

Zennor, St Ives at 24/03/2009 09:53

Cornwall Fire Brigade have five appliances from St. Ives, Penzance and St. Just also a land rover from St. Ives in attendance fighting a gorse fire which is burning on 3 fronts approx 50 metres each, crews are using beaters and allowing the fire to burn to the natural breaks.

Update at 1300 hours: Crews are still tackling the fire, which is being fanned by the wind, beaters are in use.

Update at 1400 hours: Further resources are required, appliances from Camborne and Helston also the command support unit from Truro are attending. A total of 50 hectares of gorse are involved.

Update at 1500 hours: Crews are committed at this time, continuing to fight the blaze.

Update at 1600 hours: The incident is now under control, appliances are now returning to their home stations, although some are remaining monitoring hot spots.

Update at 1730 hours: All appliances have now left the scene and returned to their home stations.

The cause of the fire was accidental, controlled burning in the area got out of hand and spread and eventually involved an area of over 50 hectares. The fire started in the vicinity of Foage Farm and spread to the neighbouring areas of Amalveor, Lady Downs and Embla.

Further update: Crews from St. Ives reattended after the strong winds caused an area of gorse to flare up again, crews extinguished the fires using beaters, Brigade personnel returned to station at 2200 hours.