Ash clouds and toxic smoke spread for miles as ‘apocalyptic’ wildfires engulf Saddleworth Moor
They could smell it from Manchester. They could see it from space. But as the worst English wildfire in living memory raged yesterday, residents living in the worst affected areas could barely make out the hills of Saddleworth Moor – so heavy was the cloud of toxic smoke.
More than 100 firefighters from Greater Manchester, Cheshire and Derbyshire continued to battle the blaze, which by last night had morphed into seven different fires across 800 hectares of tinder-dry moorland.
Their efforts were hampered by steep tracks and poor access, as well as the pea soup smoke drifting over the valleys and blocking out the sun.
Around 100 soldiers and an RAF Chinook helicopter carrying heavy pumps were sent to the moor last night to tackle the fire, whose cause has not yet been revealed, although it is rumoured that it may have started when sparks from off-road motorcycles set fire to the grass.
The fire was so severe it created an ash cloud over Manchester, turning the sun red, and lowering temperatures in the city by 3C, while the plume smothering the area was clearly visible on Nasa satellite images.
Jonathan Reynolds, the MP for Stalybridge and Hyde who yesterday visited those affected by the fire, described the scene as “apocalyptic” and agreed with his constituents that with the fire carrying on into a third day there were real concerns about air quality and health.
Residents in the villages around Saddleworth are used to extreme weather events and wildfires but say they have never experienced anything quite on this scale. People living near Saddleworth Moor have described 20ft high flames that forced them to abandon their homes, while others could smell the smoke in properties 40 miles away in Bolton.
Alex Smalley, the 26-year-old owner of Saddleworth Distillery, says at its most fierce the fire got to within a mile of his family farmhouse on the edge of Mossley, where he lives with his parents. As he inspected the smouldering moors around his home yesterday, he admitted he was concerned about the effect of the lingering toxic smoke. He said: “It is still smoking outside and we are worried about what we are breathing. Even though we shut all the windows and doors, a lot of smoke has got in and the sheer amount of what we have had to breathe does concern me. The official advice is all we have to go on, so I suppose you have to trust it.”
Yesterday, four schools in the area remained closed, but with the fire restricted for now on the peaks of the moors, residents who had been evacuated on Monday evening were being allowed to return home.
On the worst-affected street, Calico Crescent in the village of Carrbrook near Stalybridge, around 30 homes were evacuated on Monday evening.
Among them was Paul Cawley, 54, a depot driver for Firstbus who was evacuated after smoke began seeping through his roof, which had been damaged only a few months ago by the strong winds that accompanied the “Beast from the East” weather system.
“I stayed at my son’s place nearby and my partner stayed at her mother’s,” he said. “I got back into the house this morning but you can still smell the smoke everywhere.”
Lisa Farrell, 24, his neighbour who battened down the hatches at her residence on Monday evening to look after her disabled mother, Sandra, said that although they had not been forced to evacuate, she was unable to go outside, even to walk the dog, because of the effect of the smoke.
“The smoke is not nice and it is just so overwhelming,” she said. “I really don’t know if I should be breathing this stuff in or not.”
Baz Hulme, a watch manager for Greater Manchester Fire Service, was part of a team based at Calico Crescent taking air samples every hour for analysis by Public Health England.
He said that the average readings taken did not exceed the limits that would require an evacuation and instead residents had been equipped with surgical masks to wear if they ventured out on to the streets.
However, experts are warning that peat fires can be far more dangerous to health than fires normally involving vegetation as they release carbon monoxide, benzene and hydrogen cyanide, which can travel hundreds of miles from the source of the blaze.
“Recent research on peat fire events in South East Asia has demonstrated that this dense, toxic smoke poses significant health risks to human communities, both within the immediate proximity of the fires and at greater distances, since smoke plumes can be transported over tens or even hundreds of kilometres from the source of the fires,” said Susan Page, professor of physical geography at the University of Leicester.
“This is a pertinent issue for these densely populated regions where there is the potential for exposure of large numbers of people to smoke inhalation.”
According to Dr Thomas E L Smith, assistant professor in environmental geography at the London School of Economics and Political Science, photographs from the eastern suburbs of Manchester suggested there may be “hazardous” levels of particulate air pollution.
“We have data from Manchester Piccadilly that indicates ‘unhealthy’ levels in the City Centre,” he said.
The continued heatwave and a lively breeze whipping across the moors has conspired to exacerbate conditions.
Simon King, the BBC weather forecaster and meteorologist, who is based at Salford Quays where smoke had infiltrated the studios, said: “Nature isn’t going to help put out the fires on Saddleworth Moor. We expect another hot day today, with a brisk easterly wind, especially this evening. There is little to no rain in the forecast for at least a week either.”
This has raised fears that other areas of high ground could be susceptible across the country. Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service yesterday announced it had dealt with 34 wildfires in the past seven days.
Experts warned it could be weeks before the Saddleworth fire is brought under control, because the peat below the surface could be smouldering and ignite again – even when it appears the fire has been put out.
‘Even though we shut all the windows and doors, a lot of smoke has got in’
‘I really don’t know if I should be breathing this stuff in or not’