48 firefighters tackle blaze on Long Mynd
Nearly 50 firefighters battled to bring a blaze under control after fire broke out on a stretch of the Long Mynd.
The fire happened at Novers Hill in the Cwm Vale Valley close to Church Stretton yesterday.
Today officers were continuing their investigation into how the fire started.
The alarm was raised just before 4.30pm with two fire crews from Shrewsbury arriving to find the hillside well alight and gorse and grass burning.
They were joined by crews from Church Stretton, Craven Arms, Bridgnorth and Telford. At the height of the blaze, 48 firefighters were on the scene battling several seats of fire.
Incident Commander, Steve Baige said firefighters went to the lowest point of the fire to prevent it from spreading down into the valley.
About 200 square metres of hillside was alight.
He said: "When the crew from Church Stretton arrived they were sent to the east side of the fire and Craven Arms firefighters to the west.
Mr Baige added: "We had three sides of the fire under control within 30 minutes. The fire was well under control within 45 minutes and the fire crews worked extremely hard to deal with the incident before nightfall."
Firefighters used beaters and portable knapsacks and hoses to tackle the flames and prevent the fire spreading.
Mr Baige said the west wind had caused some problems but said if the winds had been as strong as they were on Monday the fire would have been much more difficult to deal with."
He said it was not the time of year for grass fires and the cause was under investigation.
