Workers say reserve will recover

Staff at a Shropshire nature reserve remain confident fire-damaged land will soon flower again.

People at Whixall Moss, near Whitchurch, are now working to restore the 50 acres of land destroyed by a fire which broke out shortly after 5pm on Wednesday.

See our blaze photo gallery here 

More than 50 firefighters were called to the scene, and crews from all over the county worked for about three hours to stop the fire spreading, before returning the following day to damp the site down.

Reserve manager Dr Joan Daniels it was a “blackened landscape” at the reserve, but said staff were working to clean up the area.

She said most of the wildlife on the reserve had survived, and was confident the two strips of moss blackened by the fire would grow back and start to flower again.

“The estate workers were out with the fire service all day yesterday,” said Dr Daniels.

“The wind got up and there were little whirlpools of wind whipping the fire back up.

“Peat bog fires are terrible because they keep springing back up.

“We’ve been moving some of the wildlife; we moved some caterpillars and some of the things that would live on the higher, dryer areas; we have just moved them on to the other side of the track so they are not crawling around in the ash.

“It’s amazing how much wildlife there is that has survived; two pairs of mallard ducks and a curlew have come down, and yesterday morning I found some of our famous raft spiders so at least some things have survived.

“Because the fire was very quick I think all the cotton sedges will come back very quickly because they have just had their tops burned off, so they will flower again and turn the whole area light.

“In the higher, dryer areas I think the grass will grow back and the heather too, but we have just got to be patient and wait.”

Dr Daniels said the fire had made it possible for staff to see where hand-cut drains were in the bogs, so they could block drains up if they need to restore water levels.

“Every cloud has a silver lining, but if the fire brigade hadn’t arrived it could have been much worse,” she said.

Dr Daniels also issued a plea for people to take care when visiting the reserve.

“We don’t know how the fire was started, it could be something like a cigarette end, or a piece of glass, but I would ask people to be careful and not smoke when they are in open countryside where things can burn,” she said.

Fire crews are investigating the cause of the blaze.