A Gorseinon chip shop has promised the firefighters pictured taking a break on a scorched hillside that their next meal is on the house.
Roma 2000 shared the photo of the five-strong crew sitting among the burnt gorse with portions of sausage and chips, unwrapped on the grass between them.
“A huge thank you to our Gorseinon firefighters,” the shop wrote, saying the crew had been “working to tackle the fires up on Bont Mountain”, the high ground above Pontarddulais, and were “pictured here enjoying some well-earned Roma sausage and chips”.
Then came the promise: “If this is you in the photo, show us the picture next time you visit Roma 2000, your next meal is on us!”
“Thank you for everything you do to keep our community safe,” the shop added.
The picture tells its own story. Helmets are off on the singed grass, the chips are spread out on paper, and one of the crew salutes the camera with a battered sausage. Behind them, the blackened hillside runs to the ridge, with the valley still green beyond.
The crew have had fire on their own doorstep. On Saturday, flames tore through grassland at Parc Melyn Mynach, with a Gorseinon appliance working close to the edge of the fire as onlookers gathered in the smoke to watch.
The offer is the latest in a wave of support for the Gorseinon crew, which has gone as far as residents setting up an Amazon wish list for the station.
Firefighter James Lawrence, posting on behalf of the crew in the Gorseinon Residents Facebook group, said they had been overwhelmed by the support offered over recent weeks, which he said had been a real boost to morale, adding the crew were proud to work within an amazing community.
The wish list, though, is one kindness too many. “The recent gesture for an Amazon wish list is again very generous and our crew are extremely grateful, but we are doing okay and would never expect the public to provide this for us,” he said. “Your kind words of support are more than enough.”
He signed off: “Once again, on behalf of us all at Gorseinon Fire Station, thank you!”
A punishing week on the mountains, from Rhandirmwyn to Talley
The photo lands at the end of a punishing stretch for Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service crews. All of Wales is in drought after the driest July in 190 years, and the region’s mountains have burned one after another.
At Rhandirmwyn, firefighters spent six days on the mountain above the village as fire spread across 250 hectares, with a helicopter dropping water on flare-ups and crews drafted in from as far as Lancashire. The major incident was stood down on Monday afternoon.
The village fed and housed them as they worked, with the Royal Oak open round the clock for five days and farmers running water to the fire ground in their own bowsers. Feeding the crews has become the pattern of the month, and Roma 2000’s offer follows it.
Above Pendine, residents had to leave their homes during Sunday night’s fire at Morfa Bychan, and the community council has called a meeting for Wednesday as it works up measures to stop overnight camping at the bay.
The mountain around Talley, Tipi Valley and Cwmdu was still smouldering on Monday, with farmers keeping watch for flare-ups.
It all comes days after phones across Wales sounded with a government wildfire alert. Hours earlier, disposable barbecues had been banned from sale across Britain, with the Prime Minister warning the country is a “tinderbox”.
Show the picture at the counter
For the crew in the photo, the reward is closer to home. All they have to do is walk into the Gorseinon chip shop with the picture.
Whether any of them have claimed it yet, Roma 2000 hasn’t said.
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