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Very busy weekend for fire-fighters

Mon, 28 May 2012

Fire-fighters were called out twice at the weekend to deal with a large fire on the headland near Douglas.

They first responded to reports of a blaze on the Port Soderick side of Marine Drive at around 5.30pm on Saturday.

Crews were confronted with a fire that had taken hold in the grass and gorse.

The location made it difficult to get enough water to tackle the flames and extra supplies needed to be brought to the scene.

After 30 minutes, crews managed to extinguish the blaze and were aided by a footpath which acted as a natural barrier to stop the flames from spreading.

However, just four hours later they were called back to the same spot after the strong onshore wind helped to reignite the fire.

They spent another hour dealing with the blaze and damping down the area but the operation was scaled down when the fading light made work dangerous for the fire-fighters.

Fortunately they were able to leave the scene and didn’t receive any further call outs.

The cause is being investigated.

Meanwhile, It was a busy Saturday in general for Island fire crews who were called to deal with a number of emergencies.

Crews in Peel attended a large blaze in wheelie bins at a restaurant on East Quay.

The cause hasn’t been determined but it’s warned that bins are an easy target for arsonists and they should be stored securely away from doors or windows.

Douglas crews who were already busy tackling a grass fire on Marine Drive received another call out to Port Jack Beach where a group of young people had started a fire with a disposable BBQ.

Later that night they were in action again as they went to aid of four people who were stuck in a lift at flats on Peel Road.

A final call-out came at around 11 o’clock that night when there was a fuel leak at a petrol station, also on Peel Road.

 

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