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South Wales Echo
A firefighter was left battling for his life after a dramatic mountain grass fire.
Andrew Fisher, from Ynyscynon Road, Trealaw, had to be airlifted from the flames on Treherbert mountain after losing consciousness as he tried to stem the blaze.
The 37-year-old father-of-two passed out with heat exhaustion last Wednesday while tackling a deliberately started grass fire, covering more than a square mile of the Blaencwm basin.
Andrew was taken to hospital where his body was pumped with fluid overnight.
Eight engines, their crews and three helicopters were still not enough to tackle the enormous blaze.
He scaled the mountainside above Treherbert on his hands and knees in darkness to try to limit the destruction of the 10 ft flames.
Before the heat overcame him, the swirling wind blew a burning ember under his safety goggles and into his left eye sending him falling forward - where he lost consciousness.
Had he fallen backwards he would have tumbled over the cliff edge.
‘It was an extreme fire and we were all over the area,’ Andrew said.
‘Halfway up the mountain, a colleague and I moved up the left side of the fire towards the cliff edge.’
But by then burning embers had sparked another fire below them.
‘I moved down to deal with that and I collapsed, moving in and out of consciousness,’ he added.
Police helicopters used searchlights to find the firefighter, at risk of hypothermia, and a rescuer was lowered down to airlift him to hospital.
Recovering at home Andrew, who still has headaches, warned such fires leave families vulnerable.
And he added: ‘My life could have ended. I can’t thank my crew members enough because I became their priority.’