Aug 14, 20221 min read

Firefighters and residents work together to tackle huge Harefield Nature reserve blaze

Updated: Nov 22, 2022

A huge grass fire broke out today at the Old Park Wood nature reserve in Harefield, London Borough of Hillingdon.

The fire comes as Britain experiences a heatwave, a time when the fire Brigade are under immense strain. The site in question was subject to an earlier fire with the London Fire Brigade being called to the same location just the day before.

Fireghters where called just before 8pm on sunday 14th August 2022 after staff at a local care home spotted the flames. Fire officers from various stations across North London responded to the grassland inferno. dozens of firefighters attended including from stations as far away as Northolt.

Care worker Kieran Carson-Kerrigan spotted the blaze from his nearby work: " I went outside to the bins and could see and smell smoke, as I got closer I saw the flames and called the fire brigade. I then quickly ran inside and alerted my colleagues who closed the windows so that the smoke couldn't get inside as we didn't want any of our vulnerable resident to become unwell from the smoke."

A tree can be seen ablaze as huge plumes of smoke are visible in the background. in the foreground very dry grass can be seen — IMAGE: Kieran Carson-Kerrigan

Firefighters responded promptly and immediately begun attempting to takle the blaze as quickly and safely as possible. Residents assisted the fire service grabbing fire beaters and buckets of water.

A LOCAL RESIDENT CAN BE SEEN FIGHTING THE FIRE WITH A FIRE BEATER .IMAGE JAMES CARSON-KERRIGAN

The fire was quickly extinguished with the time taken from the initial 999 call to the fire being out was just over 40 minutes. The nature reserve has been badly damaged with large areas of earth left scorched and charred.