GWAUN CAE GURWEN: Neighbours beat back flames on the common before fire crews arrived

Residents fought to hold back a grass fire on Gwaun Cae Gurwen common late on Wednesday night, before firefighters arrived to put it out, and the fire service believes the blaze was started deliberately.

Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service mobilised the crew from Amman Valley Fire Station at 10.07pm to the fire near Crescent Road.

The flames covered around 15 square metres of the common. Firefighters used three wildfire beaters and a hose reel jet, and had the fire out by 10.29pm, 22 minutes after the call.

It is believed the fire was started deliberately, the service said.

The station said it had hoped the Amman Valley had been spared the level of grass fires seen across the region in recent weeks, describing the call-out as disappointing.

Its thanks went to the residents who tried to contain the flames before the crew arrived, saying swift action by them and the firefighters “ensured the fire was extinguished quickly which prevented extensive damage”.

There was a further concern in the station’s account: the fields on the common occasionally hold livestock.

The fire came at the end of a summer in which crews across the region have barely stopped, a month the service described as unprecedented for wildfires, with teenagers arrested over a deliberately set fire on Drummau Mountain above Skewen.

Deliberate fire-setting has continued elsewhere. Two hectares burned above Mayhill on Sunday night in what the service said was a string of deliberately set fires, with crews back on the hillside the next morning checking for hotspots.

The dry ground has made every ignition worse. Wales has spent weeks in drought, and the cliff fire at Morfa Bychan near Pendine this month took almost 60 hours and sixteen fire stations to put out.

Within hours of the Gwaun Cae Gurwen fire, the weather finally turned. All of south west Wales spent Thursday under a thunderstorm warning, with heavy rain falling on ground baked hard by the dry summer.

The service has warned that deliberate fire-setting is a serious criminal offence that puts lives at risk, and that crews tied up on a hillside are crews unavailable for other emergencies.

Anyone with information about deliberate fire-setting can contact South Wales Police, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.