Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Plea to public following Highland wildfires

Post Thumbnail

The fire service has issued a plea for people to act responsibly in the countryside following two major wildfires in the Highlands.

Firefighters worked through the night fighting a large wildfire on the hill at the southern end of Loch Ness

And there are still six fire appliances at the scene of the blaze in the Torness area, near Inverness, today.

The fire, which involved grass and trees in the area and has now spread to nearby trees, was reported at around 3.50pm yesterday.

Since the incident began, crews from Inverness, Foyers, Dingwall, Drumnadrochit, Fort Augustus, Nairn, Grantown on Spey, Beauly, Carrbridge and Balintore have been involved.

A helicopter was drafted in this morning from PDG and it will be carrying out water bombing activity in the area as crews continue to tackle the fire.

Firefighters have been using fire beaters, knapsack sprayers and main jets to tackle the blaze and six pumps remain at the scene.

Also in attendance is the argocat off-road vehicle and a similar vehicle, which has been provided by the estate.

Scottish Fire and Rescue Service is working closely with the Forestry Commission and the estate owners.

Firefighters were also in attendance at another large wildfire on the Scoraig peninsula in Wester Ross yesterday.

Scoraig peninsula fire. Credit: Noel Hawkins.
Scoraig peninsula fire. Credit: Noel Hawkins.

Crews from Ullapool, Gairloch, Torridon, Balintore, Invergordon, Cromarty, Achiltibuie and Kinlochewe were involved in the incident, which affected gorse and trees and threatened property.

The fire service was supported by the RNLI in Lochinver, who provided a boat to ferry firefighters from Ullapool to the peninsula that is not accessible by road.

They used knapsack sprayers, hosereel jets and fire beaters to extinguish the fire, which was affected 30 acres of gorse, an acre of plantation trees and two acres of wild trees.

Firefighters managed to prevent the fire from affecting properties in the area.

Chair of the Scottish Wildfire Forum and Director of Service Delivery in the north, Assistant Chief Officer Robert Scott, said: “Our crews have been working extremely hard throughout the night and into this morning to deal with two large-scale wildfires.

“Their tireless work is helping to reduce the impact on the countryside and, during the incident in Scoraig, their efforts managed to help protect people and property.

“At Torness, we have been and continue to work closely with land managers, representatives from the Forestry Commission and our colleagues at Police Scotland.”

He added that the recent warm weather had increased the risk of outdoor fires.

Mr Scott said: “Protecting the countryside from wildfires demands that everyone recognises the risk and takes responsibility for preventing fires breaking out in the countryside and areas of grassland.

“We want people to act responsibly in a countryside environment, such as properly disposing of smoking materials to prevent these fires happening in the first place.”