Will the ongoing forest and moorland fires affect events?

[Spookster]

With rain showers forecast for 4 of the next 5 days in Sheffield, I would hope that forest fire risk is not an issue for BOC.

[mikey]

With an abundance of fires of woodlands and moors across the UK, will these affect any forthcomig events?

There have also been murmurs that at least one of the ongoing fires were started by an orienteer / orienteers ?

Murmurs from who?

[Becks]

Posting unsubstantiated rumours of that nature on a public forum seems like a not too sensible thing to do.

I personally have come across two tales of orienteers making it to forests just in time to stop them burning this week!

[Big Jon]

Why would an orienteer, of all people, start a forest fire - we use forests and need them to be full of live trees, not burnt stalks. Get a grip and stop peddling cr*p.

[bendover]

what jon said.

and i was one of the orienteers who risked his life stamping out those 20cm high flames.

[Electrocuted]

We also stopped a fire at the FVO evening event at Kinneil last night - started by kids using the O flag as kindling

[Becks]

Ben, you're my hero.

[DavidJ]

Ther first of BKO's Summer Training events which had been scheduled for 'Star Posts' on Wednesday evening was cancelled at 24 hours notice due to the fires in 'Swinley Forest' (which is the official name for the Star Posts forest). Orienteers may not have realised that Star Posts is actually one part of Swinley Forest. We call other parts of the Forest 'Swinley East' and 'Swinley West' but they are additional (but sparate) large sections of the same Swinley Forest.

[ryeland of doom]

I can remember running through burnt areas of Star Posts in the 1989 British. The fallen timber from a period of snowfall and ice storms in the previous winter was a bigger issue , it got tiring over 11km. Mind it would have been great news for the ecology.

Beware of smears. There are people out there who detest recreational use of rural areas by all but themselves and their pals. Mud, and soot, sticks. Loose talk costs O areas.

[AndyC]

Interesting how we of all the countryside users could be blamed for mysterious fires.
We don't light campfires, very few of us smoke and apart from unlikely friction from the real speedsters (even the elite aren't rocket powered) we present little opportunity for ignition. We tend to go onto the land, orienteer and then get off having caused very little damage.
Others camp and cook, smoke, let off explosive devices (guns especially), ride machinery with red hot parts and discard pieces of metal capable of reflecting and sometimes focusing light (beer cans mainly).

Apart from discussing the problems they were having getting the heather burnt at Ray Demense to encourage grouse with the landowner and thinking how that might have improved some of the area for our purposes I can't think why we'd want to set fire to any area.

[wildfire]

I'm not an orienteerer (is that a word?) but this forum discussion came up on one of my alerts as we are involved in various wildfire initiatives (see below).

Whether any events are cancelled will depend on local circumstances although the rain this weekend will have provided some (but probably only temporary) respite. I don't think any open access land closures have been instigated yet.

I spend a lot of time talking to people who deal with wildfires and in all the time I have been doing so I am not aware of any incident where orienteerers have been blamed for starting a wildfire. It sounds improbable to me.

All wildfires in the UK are started by human interaction of some sort, whether it be arson, carelessness or an accident. The relative mix of these depends where you are in the UK, for all sorts of social reasons I won't go in to here. The main cause of 'accidental' fires are probably portable BBQ's and chinese lanterns (a menace - please don't use them). There is some evidence to suggest that the UK doesn't suffer sufficiently high temperatures or sunlight intensity for cigarettes ends and bottles to start fires, even though they invariably get the blame.

If you are out in the countryside and see a fire please report it to 999, giving as much detail of location etc as possible. Dealing with wildfire in the early stages is much easier than when it gets going, so Fire & Rescue Services would rather receive multiple calls than have to turn up late.

Our company, Rural Development Initiatives, provides the Secretariat to the England & Wales WIldfire Forum (but you never knew that existed) and various county scale wildfire groups. The EWWF and wildfire groups are partnerships of public (Fire & Rescue services, National Park Authorities, government departments & agencies) and private (landowning & management representative bodies) organisations all of whom have an interest in the prevention and suppression of wildfire. We also provide wildfire training and run a biennial conference - http://www.wildfire2011.org.uk.

[Spookster]

Interesting, thanks.

I'm not an orienteerer (is that a word?)

A person who goes orienteering is an "orienteer".

[Knee Deep Mud!]

Apparently the Star Posts fire is the biggest ever in Berkshire, with over 300 firefighters tackling it at its peak.

My money would be on arson starting the Berkshire fires, as there's a long history of deliberately set fires in this area. Tinder dry conditions and schools out for the bank holiday weekend. Not a good combination. (There are reports that two teenagers have been arrested for arson.)

Looking at the news stories / photos / videos online it looks like the worst affected bit is probably the Crowthorne Woods area, rather than the main Star Posts area. Hopefully this means that the orienteering won't be too badly affected in the long term as most of this area was already unuseable as a result of clear felling and replanting a few years ago.


http://www.rbfrs.co.uk/images/swinley-02.gif

[EddieH]

Fires don't often damage orienteering other than in the very short term. I remember running in a super fast Crich Chase when all the bracken was burnt. An early start was fantastic as later the air became solid with soot kicked up by runners. Everyone finished looking as thought they'd been downa coal mine.

[katy]

I can remember running through burnt areas of Star Posts in the 1989 British.

The fires at the 1989 BOC happened in the week before the event. I remember going out (as one of the planners) and checking whether controls sites had been affected and walking over areas that were still hot and smoking!

Now I guess we would probably have had to amend the courses or cancel the event.

The fallen timber from a period of snowfall and ice storms in the previous winter was a bigger issue , it got tiring over 11km. Mind it would have been great news for the ecology.

I think the problem with the fallen trees was at the National Event a few years later, due to a small fire damaging roots and them coming down in heavy rain rather than heavy wind.

Can't get in to check Star Posts as they are still keeping the public out, but 300 hectares sounds like a big area to me. Guess I'll have to remap it again!