UPDATE, Monday afternoon: A flare-up has occurred at the Morfa Bychan wildfire because of changing conditions, Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service has said.
A spokesperson for the service said: “Firefighter crews remain on scene and are continuing to work to contain and extinguish the fire.”
They added: “Our Joint Fire Control Centre is receiving a significant number of calls regarding this incident. Please be assured that emergency services are aware of the situation and are in attendance.”
People have been asked to keep away from the affected areas so crews can work safely. Anyone affected by smoke should stay indoors with windows and doors shut, and call 999 if they see flames or believe life or property is at immediate risk.
Pendine Community Council has called a public meeting for Wednesday evening and says it is working up measures aimed at stopping overnight camping at Morfa Bychan.
A number of residents had to leave their properties and find somewhere else to stay during Sunday night’s fire, the council’s chairman Andrew Shaw has confirmed, which he said showed the scale of what happened and its impact on the village.
The meeting is at 6.30pm on Wednesday at The Caban, with Morfa Bychan as the opening item on the agenda. The council has asked residents to come and take part.
Shaw said it would not be appropriate to speculate on how the fire started, while acknowledging that many in the village would have formed their own opinions.
Separately, he said the council had become increasingly aware over recent months of overnight camping at Morfa Bychan, along with criminal damage and other antisocial behaviour.
The council has been in discussions with a number of agencies and stakeholders with an interest in the bay, and is now formulating measures it hopes will prevent overnight camping there and address the wider concerns.
Wednesday’s meeting will give the council a chance to set out where those talks have got to and what is being considered.
‘Truly frightening’
Shaw watched the fire himself, first as it travelled up from Morfa Bychan and then as it went over the top of the cliff onto adjoining land.
He described the experience as truly frightening, and said the speed and intensity of it was something he had never known before.
“Having seen the fire first-hand, it is difficult to overstate just how frightening the situation was,” he said.
Without the immediate response of the emergency services, he said, the scale of the destruction by Monday morning could have been very different.
He also thanked the local farming community, whose equipment and practical help he said had been invaluable, and The Caban for providing a venue at short notice.
‘Not simply an opportunity to vent’
The council has asked people to come to Wednesday’s meeting in a constructive frame of mind.
“We would, however, respectfully ask that this update and Wednesday’s meeting are not used simply as an opportunity to vent frustration or concerns,” Shaw said, adding that the council understood the strength of feeling and that residents would get the chance to have their say.
What was needed now, he said, was a considered and properly directed plan of action, worked out with the agencies involved so that nothing like this happens again.
The fire service has given no cause for the fire. Crews were called to Morfa Bychan at 8.20pm on Sunday and were still there 15 hours later, with beach parking shut and people asked not to drive into the village to watch.
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