Homes evacuated as Army battles Saddleworth blaze
TERRIFIED residents have told how they fled their homes as 20ft flames raged nearby in one of Britain’s worst moorland fires.
The blaze on Saddleworth Moor started on Sunday and was still burning fiercely yesterday as the military were called in to help more than 100 firefighters.
Streets in nearby villages were filled with choking smoke while a thick cloud covered the eastern part of Greater Manchester, drifting east into the Pennines, and could be visible from space.
As efforts to control the fire continued into today, an RAF Chinook helicopter was called in overnight to transport four-ton water pumps onto remote areas of the moor.
About 100 soldiers from the 4th Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland were also sent in late last night to join fire crews.
They moved in as firefighters were trying to quell pockets of flames spanning four miles.
The soldiers, from barracks at Catterick, will operate from an Army training centre to manage water lines and help with fire-beating and other support.
Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said it was a display of British troops protecting the UK ‘no matter the time, no matter the place, and no matter the problem’.
With no rain forecast until the middle of next week, efforts to control the flames have proved difficult as they have spread into tinder-dry moorland peat, which can be several feet deep.
Around 100 residents living on the edge of the moorland in Carrbrook, Stalybridge, were evacuated on Tuesday night and yesterday as smoke made it difficult to breathe and flames came within a few hundred feet of homes. Yesterday, one secondary school and three primary schools were closed.
Carrbrook resident Angela Brown, 59, an accountant, told how she desperately rang husband Victor, 62, who was playing golf as the flames came towards their home. A police officer came to her house at 8pm on Tuesday night telling her: ‘You’ve got to leave now.’
Mrs Brown said: ‘It was really scary. Ash was falling like rain.
‘We had friends over at the weekend and we’ve got a marquee in the garden. We were terrified that was going to go up and take our house with it. There was the odd explosion and the flames would shoot up.’
The flames came within 100ft of chartered surveyor Pete Woodward’s garden.
He said: ‘It was a raging inferno out there. It looked like the apocalypse had come to town. It was scary – I grabbed my toothbrush and pants and got out.’
As the fire moved away from homes yesterday afternoon, people started to return to their residences, some wearing gas masks. But officials were still advising that doors and windows be kept closed and, despite the hot weather, to turn off car air conditioning to avoid drawing in smoke.
Jonny Reynolds, Labour MP for Stalybridge, described the scenes as ‘apocalyptic’ and ‘looking like Mordor from The Lord of the Rings’.
He said: ‘Most people are saying it’s the worst moorland fire we’ve had in living memory.
‘I don’t ever remember schools being closed as a result of fire.’
As military officers joined Greater Manchester Fire Service officials to respond to the blaze, Wing Commander Gary Lane, RAF regional liaison officer for the North West, said: ‘There are some avenues that the military can assist.
‘One of those is how we can help with the pumping of water using high volume pumps owned by the fire service.’
The plume of smoke even reached the Irish Sea, some 40 miles away, while around 65,000 gallons of water had been dropped on to the fire from helicopters.
At least 34 homes were evacuated after wind blew the flames in their direction, with families spending the night in a nearby church hall.
Police said the fire may have been sparked by trail bikers.