Over 700 deliberate grass fires hit South Wales

More than 730 grass fires have been started deliberately across South Wales in this month alone, according to the South Wales Fire & Rescue Service.

Cameraman Dai Baker and I were on Trebanog mountain in the Rhondda valley this afternoon to witness the latest fire sweep across the mountainside.

It started around 1pm. The fire service estimated it stretched across a quarter of mile of mountainside by early afternoon. It was still going into the evening and spreading across the valley.

As we were filming, another fire started beyond a housing estate visible in the distance, itself overlooking another mountain side completely blackened by a previous fire started at the weekend.

This grassfire burning for over 2 hours now. In the distance another scorched mountainside. pic.twitter.com/vXkDj67E88

— Andy Davies (@adavies4) April 22, 2015

Fire crews from the local Porth station battled all afternoon to control the Trebanog fire, with a helicopter repeatedly dumping water on the area, but the wind swept it down into a nearby valley and up the hillside beyond.

As the fire service respond, politicians demand action.

The First Minister Carwyn Jones will meet with ‘key players’, said the Welsh government, in a summit next week designed to tackle the outbreak.