More Bodmin Moor Arson

The official announcement on the Cornwall Fire & Rescue section of the Cornwall Council web site concerning the most recent “wildfire” in the vicinity of Brown Willy/Roughtor is fairly bland:

Rough Tor area at 22/04/2021 09:47

Cornwall Fire and Rescue resources have been in attendance throughout the day at a multiple seated fire covering an extremely large area, crews have been using beaters and hosereel jets to check the spread of the fire. There have been appliances in attendance from Delabole and Wadebridge, also the Wadebridge Water Carrier. A Wildfire Officer is on scene this evening and monitoring the incident which is likely to progress well through the night. Arson is suspected, Devon & Cornwall Police have been informed.

Update 0030 hours: Approximately two hectares of gorse is affected, with hot spots continuing to smoulder, crews are monitoring and continuing to damp down.

My bold! The assorted pictures on Twitter are much more revealing, including some from the intrepid investigative reporters from Davidstow.info:

There were two similar fires in the same area around this time last year. Since then some CCTV cameras have been installed:

What additional steps could be taken to try and apprehend the guilty party(s), who apparently have no qualms about incinerating the local wildlife on a regular basis?



A Dry Month for Davidstow!

The Environment Agency publishes a weekly report on recent rainfall across England. Here’s an interesting graphic from the most recent edition:

The EA also maintains a large number of automated rainfall monitoring stations across the country. As revealed by this map, the nearest one to Davidstow is up the hill near the A39 “Atlantic Highway”:

Here’s its rainfall record for the past four weeks:

The last really rainy day is just about to disappear off the end of the chart.

After a really rainy winter this perhaps makes a very pleasant change? Don’t forget to water your gardens though!