
Warcop wildfire burns for eight hours in woodland
It comes after the on-call watch manager at Appleby fire station Neil Aitken told the BBC how wildfires can take a toll on people's livelihoods, obliterate wildlife and put firefighters' lives at risk.Cumbria has been hit by a number of wildfires this year as hot dry weather persists across the county.
Follow BBC Cumbria on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Daily Mail
4 hours ago
- Daily Mail
BREAKING NEWS Laguna Beach residents evacuated as massive brush fire threatens California homes
A fast-moving hillside fire erupted Monday afternoon in a residential area of Laguna Beach, California prompting evacuation orders and snarling traffic on major coastal routes as firefighters rushed to contain the blaze. The fire started around 2:15pm near Rancho Laguna Road and Morningside Drive, in the hills above Fernando Street Park. Officials quickly issued evacuation orders for residents on La Mirada Street, Katella Street, Summit Drive, and Baja Street, while those in the Arch Beach Heights neighborhood were placed under evacuation warning. Laguna Beach Fire Chief Niko King said the flames were advancing quickly and posing a direct threat to nearby homes. Crews from the Orange County Fire Authority joined local firefighters in launching a coordinated ground and air assault to slow the spread. Aircraft made water drops while firefighters on the ground defended properties in the fire's path. Update #RanchoFire #LagunaBeach 1,5 acres, winds are light, fixed wing and copters holding the perimeter. Ground firefighters making good progress, struc protection holding deck streams keeping fire below the ridgeline. — Kevin Takumi (@KevinTakumi) July 7, 2025 New Brush Fire in Laguna Beach. View from my place. — Grace Chong, MBI (@gc22gc) July 7, 2025


Daily Mail
10 hours ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Texas flood survivors search for the missing and sift through ruins as they ask why there were no warnings
The stench of death still hangs over the Guadalupe River, three days after the watercourse spectacularly burst its banks and flooded the small Texas towns of Ingram, Kerrville, Center Point, and Hunt early on Independence Day. T he tragedy has claimed at least 89 lives, while 41 people are still missing including 10 young girls from a Christian summer camp. Most of the victims were swept away in the early hours of Friday morning after the river rose 23ft in a matter of minutes. Alerts that should have woken them to the impending danger never arrived, with many in areas with no signal or with alarms that didn't sound. 'There were no warnings on my phone until about eight in the morning which is long after this happened,' said Jamie Flick, 48, who lives in Ingram. 'That's crazy. The best thing I can think of is that they just didn't expect this here, but we have a lot of smaller tributaries that run into the Guadalupe. 'If it rains up that way, you're gonna be hit here, right? We don't know why the warnings weren't here, but they just weren't. It's scary.' Flick was speaking to the Daily Mail while searching a local trailer park, upended by the floods, for missing pets. All around are the signs of desolation. Hidden among loblolly pines that once lined the river banks are the corpses of deer and other wildlife killed in the disaster, rotting in the 84F Texas heat. The reek of dead fish flipped out of the water adds to the stench which mingles gruesomely with the smell of smoke emanating from the bonfires of tumbled tree branches set by cleanup crews. Bridges, some caved in, are swarmed with rescue teams accompanied by cadaver dogs hunting desperately for any sign of life among the devastation. Once an oasis of rural peace, there is quiet no more. Sirens constantly blare as police teams and first responders screech past on Highway 39, the country road that connects Kerrville with Ingram and the tiny town of Hunt where 27 children lost their lives at Camp Mystic. Stories of near misses and death are everywhere. Flick tells of a friend from the same trailer park who woke in the small hours to find water pouring into her home. 'They got out through a back window,' Flick said. 'She was able to get out with her dog and her cat, they got stuck in a tree, her with her cat on her head. 'Her dog was on a harness, but she let him go at some point for whatever reason and couldn't get him back. Eventually a neighbor saved her and the cat.' Bambi Harrell, 62, spent Sunday helping friends pick up the shattered pieces of their lives, told Daily Mail she had never witnessed disaster of this scale in her 25 years in the area She added: 'They keep downplaying it, but I've never seen anything like this. They keep saying that 30 or 50 years ago, we had something like this. 'These trees are hundreds of years old, and they're uprooted and they're down. 'We've always had these huge trees, and the huge trees are gone now. So, it's nothing that's ever seen here before.' Flick is not alone in her assessment of the devastation wrought by the floods. Bambi Harrell, 62, who spent Sunday helping friends pick up the shattered pieces of their lives, said: 'I've lived here 25 years and I've seen a lot of flash flooding but nothing like this. 'We have some amazing first responders here that are going above and beyond.' She added: 'I thought I was prepared for this, but I was not. I've never seen anything like this. It's devastating.' Driving through Kerrville and the neighboring towns of Ingram and Center Point, the scale of the devastation quickly becomes clear. A road bridge across the river was partially caved in, while huge loblollies lie snapped in half like discarded toothpicks. Crushed cars are mangled on the Guadalupe's banks while upturned boats were scattered around – ripped from their moorings by the sheer force of the current. Elsewhere, homes are ripped up, including in River's Edge – a small leafy row of trailer homes just a few feet from the Guadalupe in Ingram. It was there that dad-of-two Julian Ryan, 27, died a hero after punching through a window so his family could escape – at the cost of almost severing his arm. Speaking to CBS affiliate KHOU in the aftermath, his devastated widow Christine Wilson said: 'It severed his artery in his arm and almost cut it clean off.' Julian Ryan, 27, is being hailed a hero after he used his final moments to save his family from the fast-moving waters. He died after punching through a window of their trailer home and severing his artery Inside Ryan's trailer, flood marks almost reached the ceiling while the family's furniture was tossed around like toys by the water Heartbreakingly, despite repeated 911 calls, Ryan could not be saved – telling his family, 'I'm sorry, I'm not going to make it. I love y'all.' Daily Mail photos of the trailer home show the catastrophic damage it suffered, with flood marks almost reaching the ceiling while the family's furniture was tossed around like toys. Mud is splattered up the inside walls while one side of the property was cracked and bent, with bits of the corrugated iron exterior ripped off. Other trailers in the neighborhood had been shifted off their foundations – with some landing three streets away. 'It's just total devastation,' said neighbor Ray Lackey. Like Ryan's, his trailer home was wrecked in the flood and is now filled with mud that has destroyed most of his possessions – including irreplaceable photographs of his late father and sister. 'There are families that lost their lives, people who were killed that I know. It's hard. I lost everything and everybody here – and I mean everybody here – lost everything.' Lackey, a carpenter, was out of town when the flood hit but, with no insurance, he now faces an uphill battle to get his life back on track. 'Hopefully somebody will help us out somehow. I wish I would have had insurance, really, right?' he said. 'I never would have thought anything like this would have happened. The river has never come up. That's why I don't, and I've lived here for a good amount of time.' On nearby streets, houses still stood but were packed with smelly river mud while another property – which had been named Paradise by its distraught owner – was playing host to a phalanx of police vehicles. Meanwhile, the usually serene TX-39 highway that cuts through town had been turned into a snarl of cop cars and big rigs hauling specialist gear, such as air boats and cherry pickers equipped with tracks. 'Before this, this was just a beautiful, peaceful, lovely place,' said Lackey. 'It was very quiet. Nobody messed with nobody. 'Everybody helped out around here. And now everybody is kind of coming together. It helps having people like them around and now they're coming out to help.'


The Independent
18 hours ago
- The Independent
Greece orders workers to down tools as another heatwave takes hold
Greece has introduced mandatory work breaks in regions where temperatures are forecast to exceed 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit), as a heatwave is set to grip the country until Thursday. The labour ministry has ordered a halt to outdoor manual labour and food delivery services from midday to 5pm in central Greece and several islands. Employers have also been advised to offer remote work options. Athens. The current hot spell comes after similar sweltering temperatures struck Europe, reaching 46C in part of Portugal. Greek authorities say they are taking long-term steps to address the effects of climate change, including the deployment this summer of a record number of firefighters. Last week, at least 5,000 tourists were forced to evacuate parts of Crete as a massive wildfire scorched forests and olive groves on the Greek island. Around 230 firefighters, along with 46 engines and helicopters, rushed to tackle the blaze on Thursday. It had broken out the day before in the forested hills near Lerapetra on the island's southern coast. People from villages including Achlia, Ferma, Agia Fotia and Koutsounari and surrounding tourist resorts and hotels were evacuated to Ierapetra's indoor sports hall for shelter. Greece and other countries in the Mediterranean are in an area scientists have called 'a wildfire hotspot', with blazes common during hot and dry summers. These have become more destructive in recent years, authorities say, due to a fast-changing climate. Meanwhile, in Turkey last week, thousands fled wildfires as the country battled blazes in the Cesme and Odemis districts in the western coastal province of Izmir. Winds hindered their efforts as the flames approached a main highway to Cesme, local TV footage showed, and thick smoke billowed over mountainous areas. as a large wildfire, fanned by strong winds and exacerbated by Greece's first summer heatwave, raged near the capital.