OK, it's not the most brilliant picture in the world, but this was the view from the office window last Saturday night.

I was working late and saw a HUGE fire on the other side of the valley - bear in mind this is at least a mile away.  I knew there was a farmhouse over there and the fire was easily house sized, although in the dark I couldn't see what was actually burning.  I rang the fire brigade.

I don't ring 999 very often.

Most of the Manx firefighters are volunteers, as the island isn't big enough to support several crews of full-time firefighters.  Even so, two engines from Ramsey arrived remarkably quickly.  We watched them speed up to the fire, lights flashing.

Then we watched them turn round and go away again.  (Oh dear.)

It turns out that the farmer was burning rubbish in one of his fields, had people on hand supervising, and everything was under control.

My call out was what they term 'a false alarm but with good intent'.  The fire service was kind and said that I'd done the right thing, but, even so, it was embarrassing that I'd set the call-out machinery in action for no good reason.

Could the farmer not have alerted the fire brigade so that, if the fire was reported, they'd know they'd needn't react?

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