National fire fighters leave Holme Fen blaze - but operation to tackle wildfire continues
The number of firefighters tackling the blaze at Holme Fen has been reduced after the incident nature was downgraded – but the task of completely extinguishing the fire continues.
On Monday (August 24) the fire at Holme Fen was taken out of major incident status, meaning a much reduced fire service presence will remain at the scene supporting the clearing of the area to prevent further spread.
As part of the downgrading of the incident, the national resilience crews were stood down marking a significant milestone in the incident.
These are firefighters from different fire and rescue services across the country who volunteer to travel to other fire services when needed.
Crews from Merseyside, London, Durham, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire (amongst others) have all been at the scene helping the Cambridgeshire teams deal with the fire, which started on Saturday, August 8.
Chief Fire Officer Matthew Warren and Deputy Chief Fire Officer Jon Anderson met the resilience crews at lunchtime to thank them personally for all their hard work in supporting the response.
Matthew said: “We couldn’t have dealt with this fire and made the progress we have without the support of the national resilience and neighbouring services’ crews. Without their support over the last fortnight, we would have been left with very few crews to respond to other incidents, resulting in delayed response times, and the fire itself may have spread further into the nature reserve.
"Individuals have been days, and for some, weeks away from home and this has been hard labour too, dirty, hot and physically draining at times, but their willingness and commitment to help has been unwavering and impressive. They have also brought their experience to the operation, advising on tactics and helping us bring this incident to a close as quickly as possible.”
The Peterborough Telegraph went to the scene on Thursday, August 20, and met Jake Banks, crew manager from Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service, who had not been home for two weeks – with a pregnant fiance and baby boy at home.
While the ‘visible’ orange flames have all been extinguished, a large operation is still on going at the nature reserve.
Matthew said: “It is a significant milestone in the incident for us to be able to stand national resilience crews down as it means we come out of major incident status. Contractors clearing the site, working with crews to tackle any hotspots that emerge when trees are uprooted, have worked phenomenally hard over the past few days and test trenches we have dug to monitor the temperature of the peat around the perimeter of the area have shown positive temperature readings and are unearthing pools of water which is a good sign as this will prevent further spread underground. We are reducing crews at the scene down to two in the day and one at night while the clearing continues and we will monitor this daily. So although positive news from the scene today, this doesn’t mean the incident has concluded. There is still heavy machinery and fire crews on scene and we therefore ask people to please continue to stay away from the area for now so we can bring the incident to safe conclusion over the coming days or weeks.”