A WARNING was issued to farmers in West Devon this week, following a substantial gorse fire on Blackdown, near Mary Tavy on Monday night. Two firecrews from Tavistock, backed up by crews from Princetown and Yelverton and the incident control vehicle from Greenbank in Plymouth, fought for around four hours to get the blaze under control. Tavistock fire chief Tim Smith said: ?We are talking about an area of about eight to ten acres ? because of the high wind we had a right old battle on our hands, it was about 10pm before we got it out.? Mr Smith said the fire was believed to have been started by swaling activity in the area. He warned farmers to make sure they kept gorse burning under control and restricted to daylight hours.
