Crews ready to battle grass fires

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A fire service is pulling out all the stops in a bid to crack down on arsonists starting grass blazes over the Easter weekend.

The holiday is traditionally one of the busiest times for South Wales Fire Service, which is called to hundreds of the deliberately-started fires

But this year, it will have more firefighters available, along with new high-tech multi-terrain vehicles.

The service's area suffers the highest number of grass fires in the UK.

Each year, the blazes cost around £9m to tackle, with hundreds being started during the Easter holidays.

In April 2007, it received 5,500 calls about grass fires in just 10 days. Last year, April was the busiest month for grass fires for the service, with 469 call-outs.

Although the weather forecast for the weekend is potentially wet, the fire service said it was taking no chances this year.

New vehicles

"This is due to the busy 'spate conditions' experienced at Easter in years gone by when traditionally, the number of deliberately set grass fires soars, putting massive pressure on the Service's resources," a spokeswoman said.

Don't be under the illusion that these fires are accidental - the reason for the extremely high number of grass fires is because they are being deliberately set. Andrew Thomas, fire service

The fire service plans to tackle the blazes by increasing the number of control staff on duty between 1000 and 2300 BST, along with having more firefighters working and others on call.

It will also be using its new vehicles, which cost £250,000 and were launched earlier this month, specifically to tackle the grass fires problem.

Crews will be able to use four new new all-terrain vehicles, called argocats, which are eight-wheeled amphibious vehicles designed to negotiate inaccessible mountainous areas and capable of negotiating deep water.

The machines have a water spray "fogging" system that for the first time allows crews to fight blazes with water rather than traditional grass beaters.

They will also be able to use a camera mounted on a remote controlled mini helicopter, which gives a bird's-eye-view of fires, as well as an infra-red image of hotspots.

'Risk'

The mini helicopter will give a bird's-eye-view of the fires

Andrew Thomas, of the fire service's Intervention (Operations), said they are "preparing as far as possible to deal with a busy period".

"The public can help us by reporting any suspicious behaviour to the police, and parents can warn their children not to get involved in this criminal behaviour," he said.

"Remember, if we're dealing with hundreds of grass fires across the area it makes it more difficult to respond to house fires, road traffic collisions and other building fires where people may be trapped."

He warned people caught starting grass fires would be prosecuted.

"Don't be under the illusion that these fires are accidental - the reason for the extremely high number of grass fires is because they are being deliberately set," he said.

"The dry weather we often experience at this time of year can make the conditions extremely dangerous as grass fires can get out of hand very quickly, cause extensive damage and put lives at risk."