Incident 36/2011

At 05:00 this morning, the team continued with its joint incident response with Bowland Pennine MRT assisting Lancashire Fire & Rescue Service regarding the large scale moorland fire in the North-Western part of the West Pennine Moors, largely comprising Anglezarke Moor.

We commenced support operations with LFRS just after 05.45 hrs this morning, involving our three deployed Land Rover MR Ambulances and 8 team members alongside BPMRT with two Land Rover MR Ambulances and 11 team members attending throughout the day on a rota / shift system.

Both teams, as with yesterday, provided full support to the fire fighting operations, centred around the use of the deployed Land Rover MR Ambulance Vehicles which provided an off road driving vehicle resource to the overall operation.

In an operation now familiar to both teams, all the MRT vehicles were utilised throughout the day, in Fire Sectors, alongside the A675, farms in the Roddlesworth and Belmont areas, the Belmont to Rivington Road, Manor House and Brinscall areas.

Both teams vehicles were used to ferry fire crews back and forth along moorland tracks, take Fire Officers onto the many moorland tracks in the area to access and assess the various fire outbreaks, and transport equipment to various locations.

Water for fire fighting operations was also transported in a ferry operation by the MRT vehicles deployed, again as with yesterday, in the Great Hill area and the Standing Stones Hill area of Anglezarke Moor.

Mountain Rescue also provided a major support element today alongside specialist LFRS resources, in the laying of hoses and portable dams along Will Narr and Spitlers Edge, which entailed a considerable amount of totally off-road moorland driving in a hopefully continuing successful operation to contain the fire.

With damping down operations still in place, aided by cooler weather conditions and rain showers, and a considerable amount of fire fighting equipment left in place on the moors, and with all fire sectors under control, operations were scaled back for the evening. (At the time of submitting this report late this evening, both ourselves and Bowland Pennine MRT remain on standby to further assist LFRS over the next few days, should the need arise.

Bolton MRT resources were all withdrawn from the incident scene by 20.10 hrs with BPMRT resources in a similar timescale.

Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service resources deployed today included a large number of pump appliances, a specialist all-terrain vehicle, and various support vehicles. A mobile fire control unit and the main fire/MRT RVP was located on Crookfield Road, off the A675, to the South of Abbey Village, in the Roddlesworth area of the West Pennine Moors.

The following MRT resources were utilised in todays operation;

• Bolton MRT, three Land Rover MR Ambulance Vehicles, and eight Team Call Out list members.
• Bowland Pennine MRT, four Land Rover MR ambulance Vehicles, and eleven Team call Out list members.
• United Utilities Ranger and Estate Staff members utilising 2 ArgoCat ATVs and Tractor and Trailer with water bowser.
• Salvation Army Mobile Catering Unit.