29/08/2025
And this is away labours planed destruction of the countryside will never succeed. The farming / countryside community stick together.
Seventeen years old.
That’s all he is. Seventeen—and yet this week, he stood between his family’s livelihood and the fire that came within minutes of destroying it.
The young farmer told me with pride about his parents and the campsite they’ve built together. On Tuesday, that campsite was on the brink of disaster. Guests had already been evacuated. Flames were in the trees. The business his family had poured their lives into was about to vanish.
So he did what farmers do. He climbed into his dad’s tractor, hitched up the water bowser, and drove to the pond. Filled it. Drove back. Sprayed. Authorities told him to stop—that it was too dangerous, that he wasn’t allowed near the fire. But he couldn’t stand by. He went anyway. All night. The next day. And the next day. Load after load of water, refusing to give in.
And he saved it. The campsite still stands.
But not because of him alone. Friends from neighbouring farms rallied too, hauling water, bringing strength, riding quad bikes out onto the moors to stamp out flare-ups. Even tonight, they’re still out there, holding the line. A small farming community that decided they weren’t going to watch their neighbours lose everything.
The boy spoke too of his mum’s sadness. Families had to be turned away, refunds given out, holidays cancelled. People rarely see those ripple effects—the heartbreak that lingers long after the smoke clears.
It’s a story that’s both devastating and uplifting. A reminder that when crisis hits, it is farmers—once again—who step forward. Ordinary men and women, and in this case a teenager, doing something extraordinary. Quietly, stubbornly, and without fuss, they kept the fire at bay. They saved not just a campsite, but a family’s way of life.
