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Grass fire at coastal beauty spot Beauty spots hit by grass fires
(about 9 hours later)
Firefighters are tackling a grass fire in Rhossili, on the west coast of the Gower peninsula, near Swansea. Firefighters tackled a series of grass fires on Sunday, including two on the Gower peninsula, near Swansea.
Four fire appliances and a Land Rover vehicle have been sent to tackle the blaze, which covers 80 hectares, equivalent to 72 football pitches. The first fire at Rhossili started on Sunday morning and destroyed 100 hectares of grassland, the equivalent of 100 rugby pitches.
A spokeswoman for Mid and West Wales Fire Service said the fire was on land between Rhossili and Llangennech. Firefighters were called later to a blaze at Cheriton, in the north of the Gower, also affecting 100 hectares.
"It's the start of the grass fire season. There's no impact to villagers right now, " said the spokeswoman. Other grass fires were reported at Rudry near Caerphilly, Tonypandy in the Rhondda and Maesteg in Bridgend county.
Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service said it was called to more than 100 grass fires across its force area.
Crews from Reynoldston, Sketty, Morriston and Pontarddulais were deployed to Sunday morning's blaze at Rhossili.
They spent more than 12 hours tackling the grassland fire and had to approach the fire on foot due to the inaccessibility of the terrain.
David Morgan, the fire service's community safety manager, said crews had experienced a rise in grass and forestry fires in the past few weeks.
'Injury and death'
He said: "Grass fires can have very serious consequences - these sort of fires are extremely dangerous and unpredictable, and they can quickly spread out of control.
"Deliberate fire setting presents a serious risk of injury and death to the fire setter and also the firefighters who attend the incident to extinguish the fire.
"Firefighters battle under arduous conditions, with fires spread across difficult and sometimes inaccessible terrain.
"These fires prove a huge drain on resources and firefighters tackling these fires may be delayed in attending genuine emergencies such as people trapped in house fires or road accidents.
"These fires also damage the landscape which provides a major draw for tourists to the area."