Boater alerts emergency services to fire

Published: Friday, 23 July 2010

A BOATER, on his narrowboat moored by the side of the Oxford Canal alerted the emergency services to a fire at the nearby nature reserve.

Firefighters then spent two hours tackling the fire at Burgess Hill Nature Park when the blaze broke out around noon on Wednesday,  using shovels to stamp out the fire and stop it spreading.

Next to the nature reserve

It was Mark Jones who moors his narrowboat next to the nature reserve,  and was enjoying a barbecue with friends, who saw the blaze, and rang the emergency services.

An Oxfordshire Fire Service spokesman told the fire was being treated as accidental, and nothing was found at the scene to indicate the fire had been started deliberately.

But Oxford City Council reminded people that lighting fires in its parks and open spaces posed a threat to wildlife and was not permitted.