Bush fire destroys forest on St Anne |21 October 2008

Chief fire officer Andre Morel told Nation it is suspected the blaze started at around 1.30am yesterday. The fire department was first alerted at 2.45am.

He said travel difficulties at that time of night meant fire officers, along with those from the Departments of Environment and Risk and Disaster Management, could not reach the scene until some three hours later, at around 6am.

About four hours after they arrived on a coastguard vessel they were still battling to put out the flames, with the team of 17 firefighters circling the blaze to stop it spreading.

Contacted at 3pm yesterday Mr Morel said reinforcements, mostly defence personnel, had been sent to the island with a helicopter. The firefighters had faced serious problems putting out the flames because of difficult access on the steep terrain, he added.

A team of close to 100 were involved in the operation all together.

Speaking an hour later, Mr Morel said the fire had largely died down after water was dumped on it from the helicopter, but thick smoke was still billowing from it. He said a team would remain on the island last night to tackle the blaze should it flare up again.