
Extinguishing Fires in Old Peatlands
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Because peatlands are formed by water they are on the lowest land available. When they have been reclaimed they are susceptible to fire which burns underground and often cannot be put out by conventional means. When I was a child I found out that all farmers have their own drain digging equipment to manage the water on the farm. Teapot Hall Farm in Lincolnshire had some reclaimed peatland that caught fire, I suggested that my grandfather and uncle dug drains that would take all the rain from the local fields and aim it in the direction of the fire. As soon as it rained the fire was soon put out by an amount of rain water that the fire brigade would have found impossible to match. Since then I have put out several such fires, one on Adam Henson’s farm, he is a presenter on ‘Countryfile.’ When the peatland was first drained streams were cut into the land to take away the excess water, so these must be blocked before the drains are dug. There are often government grants to rewild land on farms so the farmer also gets paid for putting out the fire. Peat is made up of special water-absorbing mosses called sphagnum. These mosses love the wet and acidic conditions of our peatlands. As the mosses grow, they take in carbon dioxide from our atmosphere and lock it away in their plants cells. So turning the old peatland back to peatland reduces the carbon footprint of the farmer, and it happens that often a sphagnum moss unknown to science is found, I have one named after me.