‘The firefighters are our heroes. They’re standing between us losing our home’
MIKE Sewell and his family bought Pike Cottage three years ago to escape city living.
It sits on the edge of Winter Hill with spectacular views down towards Lower Rivington Reservoir and the surrounding countryside.
In the 2.5 acres of land out the back, they’ve built a lake and filled it with koi carp, ducks and other wildlife.
Mr Sewell, who lives with his wife, son, daughter, and a grandchild, likes nothing better than taking his dog for a walk for miles and miles over the rolling hills.
Now this idyllic life is under threat from a moorland fire that has raged since last week and shows little sign of letting up.
The Sewell home is one of a number of rural properties that have come frightening close to being engulfed by the flames.
Only the back-breaking work of firefighters from around the country stands in the way of them losing everything.
Mr Sewell, 55, told the M.E.N: “We’ve put a lot of heart and soul into the home – we’re still doing work. That’s one of the reasons why we were so worried.
“The firefighters are our heroes. They’re standing between us losing our home. You can’t give them enough praise. Bless them – they’ve been here constantly, doing 15-hour days.
“We’re taking them cups of tea, letting them use the toilet whenever they need, just as much as we can do for them.
“Plus, they’ve kept us up to date with what’s going on – they’ve been fantastic.”
The drama began last Thursday afternoon when Mr Sewell, who runs a kitchen business in Trafford Park, noticed smoke coming from near the telecoms tower.
“Come 9pm, the police came with their fire engines and told us that we might have to evacuate,” he said. “Then at 11pm they told us to get out. “I came back Friday morning and the place was just covered in smoke. They managed to keep the flames back.”
This summer’s moorland wildfires, in Saddleworth and Winter Hill, are proving some of the most difficult to combat in firefighting history.
A prolonged heatwave has led to tinderbox conditions on the moors, with grass burning rapidly, fanned by strong winds that are often changing direction. Peat below the surface is also retaining heat so just when crews think they’ve put out one pocket of fire, it pops back up again hours later.
By Saturday it had become clear Pike Cottage was directly in the path of the blaze.
“I spoke to the fire chief and they told me they were digging a trench right around the house,” said Mr Sewell.
“It was very strange. It was unreal – watching them do it, they did it in a day, a complete day.
“It was a hot on Saturday as well. This one guy was motoring along. It’s a big area to cover and the ground’s very hard to get the top layer off. “It’s about 6-8ft wide to stop the fire crossing. “Luckily they did that because come Saturday night the flames were up to the trench.
“It was scary watching that. We’ve got CCTV on the back because we’ve got chickens out there, we were looking about 10 or 11pm and there were firemen running back and forth across the garden.
“It dramatises it more in the evening when it’s dark - you don’t really see it in the day.
“But when it’s dark you see the extent of the flames and how it’s coming towards you. It’s very terrifying.”
It’s now day seven of the Winter Hill fire and the Sewells are still staying with family at night in case the fire comes back.
They are hopeful of returning properly soon but the experience of watching the firefighters has been humbling.
“They’re running on empty,” said Mr Sewell.