Firefighters continue to battle ‘mile long’ wildfire as blaze rages overnight
FIRE crews are still battling a huge wildfire near a caravan park in the Scottish Highlands nearly 20 hours after the alarm was raised.
Crews are still at the scene at Daviot, near Inverness, as flames continue to engulf trees and smoke in the mile-long inferno.
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) received more than 40 calls of concern about the blaze yesterday afternoon at 2.45pm.
And crews confirmed this morning at appliances are still at the scene after battling the fire overnight.
Photos from social media showed huge plumes of smoke billowing up from Meallmore Hill, near the Auchnahillin Holiday Park, visible from across the river.
SFRS sent out one fire appliance initially, however, six more were later mobilised and specialist resources were also brought in.
One eyewitness said: “The fire’s big, and moving about 100 yards every 10 minutes.
“People might need to get evacuated from houses.
“If it jumps the road dozens of houses will also need evacuated.”
Fire chiefs have urged locals just to keep windows and doors closed to avoid smoke inhalation.
It came on the hottest day of the year for Scotland, after Auchincruive in Ayrshire recorded a sweltering 29.8C.
It is unclear if anyone has been injured as a result of the fire.
A Scottish Fire and Rescue Service spokesperson said: “We were alerted at 2.45pm on Saturday, 10 June to reports of a fire in the open at Daviot, south of Inverness.
“Appliances are still currently at the scene.”
Anita Gibson, the owner of Auchnahillin Holiday Park which is near to where the fire broke out, said the area is suffering from power loss as a result of the incident.
She told BBC News: “The helicopter was going overhead and dropping water up until about 23:00 so it was fairly noisy. I moved some of our tent campers into caravans for the night as I was worried about the smoke.
“The power is still off but there was no damage to property and we were glad to see a bit of rain this morning.
“We know wildfires do occur but it’s not something we thought would happen on our doorstep. We are very grateful to the emergency services.”
Dry weather in recent weeks has led to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) issuing a water scarcity alert in parts of the country.
On Friday, Sepa placed another area of the Highlands at “significant risk” of water scarcity due to the dry weather.
It said it is “extremely concerning” that levels around Loch Maree had dropped so early in the summer.
The environment watchdog also warned water scarcity in Scotland is “expected to escalate quickly” over the coming weeks due to the lack of rain and high temperatures.
And SFRS extended their wildfire warning across the weekend as they battled the flames including on in northern Glasgow.
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