'It's all burnt. It's all gone' Huge Dartmoor blaze is a wake-up call, say farmers

'It's all burnt. It's all gone'

- Steven Morris

The spot where the wildfire broke out could hardly have been worse. Cut Hill is one of the remotest and highest peaks on Dartmoor, miles from any road, a place of tussocky, ankle-turning terrain. And the weeks of hot weather meant the molinia, the moorland grass, was as tinder dry as farmers can remember it at this time of year. Once it took hold on Sunday, the fire raged.

"It was challenging, a really big one," said Tracy May, a Dartmoor sheep farmer. "It's so remote out there. It was an hour or more to reach the fire, and when you got there it was difficult to control."

May coordinates the Dartmoor commoners' firefighting team, local people who work with the fire service to tackle moorland fires, using generations' worth of knowledge to guide the professionals on to the high ground and help them fight the flames.

It took the commoners and fire crews two days to put the fire out and, despite their best efforts, 500 hectares (1,200 acres) of wildlife-rich moorland was burnt in the biggest fire on Dartmoor for about five years.