Close enough as fire raged
IT WAS from a safe distance, but looking on as Saturday’s forest fire raged was a sobering experience.
Lochgilphead coffee mornings and shinty matches were among the Saturday jobs in the Argyllshire Advertiser diary, then it was onward to Inveraray to cover a charity fundraiser.
A leisurely motor up Loch Fyne-side was interrupted by the sight of smoke above Furnace that looked like something out of the ordinary. Seeking a better vantage point I ventured up a forestry road above the A83 but on the opposite side from the (by now) raging fire coming down from the South Craleckan direction.
The day was bright and sunny, but this was a different, dark place with smoke above and around.
The birds still sang but my abiding memory is not of smoke but of the sound of the fire, a roaring hunger. And there was the occasional waft of heat in the air.
Had the wind been blowing stronger or from a different direction, I have little doubt this could have been much more serious than it was.
But my admiration for the firefighters who tackle these fires on behalf of the rest of us is all the greater for seeing the height and ferocity of the flames last Saturday.
A fire can be a mesmerising sight, but once I had taken my pictures and shot a little video - I decided discretion was the better part of valour, and quickly scarpered before the A83 was closed or the fire jumped the road.
And I’m afraid I never reached the Inveraray fundraiser, for which I apologise.