Tay reed bed blaze may be deliberate fireraising

NATURE: Expert puts forward theories for fire and predicts no lasting damage

An expert on the River Tay’s reed beds suspects human involvement in a blaze which gutted almost two miles of the nature reserve earlier this week.

However, Graham Craig, who worked on the 11-mile riverbank site along the Carse of Gowrie for decades, says the affected grassland will be back to its “full height” as early as August.

Firefighters were called to the reed beds east of Errol on Monday at 11.40am after reports of smoke coming from the wildlife haven, which is now a site of special scientific interest.

The blaze quickly spread west through the wetlands, with fire crews spending about 10 hours tackling the incident.

They were able to contain the damage to a stretch of the riverbed measuring 1.9 miles by 0.6 miles with the aid of Errol helicopter pilot Guy Stephens, who spent hours dumping water on the reeds.

At its height, the flames rose as high as 40ft.

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service say investigations into the cause of the blaze remain ongoing, however Mr Craig says it would be hard for a fire to take hold on the reed beds without human involvement.

Mr Craig is the last person to have harvested Tay reed commercially, having done so from the 1970s until 2005.

He said when he started out on the reed beds in years gone by that controlled burning was used as a management tool. This no longer takes place at the site.

He added that a fire “wouldn’t just start of its own accord” at the site “even if it was the warmest day of the year” – and said it may have been started by a person, possibly accidentally.

He added: “I think it would be started. Once it starts there is no way you can stop that.

“Even a managed fire, once it starts, it is pretty scary; because once it starts burning it starts to generate wind as it goes.

“It would have eventually burned itself out at Port Allen – there is a natural break there.”

Mr Craig said the fire-hit section of reeds, the widest in the area, amounted to “10 or possibly 15 years of standing reed there that’s never been touched”.

He added: “Basically it is really thick reed. So once that starts to burn it is very difficult to stop.”

He said firefighting on reed beds is “tough going”, adding: “You can barely walk through the reed because it is that thick. I think the use of the helicopter helped in a big way.”

The phragmites reeds on the Tay can grow at a speed of up to 3in a day. And Mr Craig said come August, the whole area will be recolonised.

Gordon Pryde, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service’s local senior officer, said investigations into the cause of the incident remain ongoing.

He said: “We are still looking into it. We still have further inquiries to make and we are working with partners throughout Scotland and the owners of the land to get to the bottom of it.”

bdingwall@thecourier.co.uk.

Picture: Steve Brown. A helicopter dumped vast amounts of water on to the flames as they ripped through the reed beds on the Tay near Errol.

Reed expert Graham Craig said that in years gone by controlled burning was used as a management tool but this no longer takes place at the site.