Investigation launched into Bonne Nuit blaze

Monday 17 September 2018

After a fire tore through the headland at Bonne Nuit over the weekend, the Fire Service are making enquiries into “activities” down by the harbour.

The furze fire, which left a damaged area of 50,000 square metres, is believed to have begun at the foot of the cliff, close to some benches by Bonne Nuit harbour itself.

Station Commander Ryan Hall, who was also the Duty Officer in charge of coordinating the response to the blaze has said it appears “that the fire started down by the benches at Bonne Nuit” and that there were “reports of activities at Bonne Nuit harbour” into which he is now making enquiries.

It is unclear what these “activities” were or whether the fire was started by accident, but Mr Hall emphasised that they were “chasing up on enquiries” to “make a full investigation” into the matter. 

Pictured: Station Commander Ryan Hall who was also the Duty Officer responding to the Bonne Nuit blaze.

The Fire Service received numerous 999 calls late on Saturday afternoon and had to battle the blaze for over eight hours until it stopped spreading across the dry furze on the cliff-face.

The scale of the fire meant that at the height of the blaze, the Fire Service were almost at top capacity, making using of whole-time, on-call and night-watch firefighters to contain the rapidly spreading fire. 

Pictured: Reports indicate that the fire started at the bottom of the cliff face by the benches and spread around the headland (Aerial Recon Team)

Mr Hall reminded islanders to be cautious when out enjoying the continuing hot weather, particularly when disposing of BBQs.

He said: “The hot weather is going to continue and we’re aware of people still using BBQ’s – it is going to catch if things aren’t disposed of properly. We’re urging people to be very safe whilst out in the countryside.”