![\"Wildfire](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1_EGR_130826_fire_02jpeg.jpg\")
<\/p>\nPolice issued as statement late on Friday night after the raging wildfire took hold in a matter of minutes<\/p>\n
The wildfire pictured above Ynyshir and Porth in the Rhondda(Image: John Myers\/WalesOnline)<\/p>\n
Police have arrested four teenage boys on suspicion of arson after a fire spread across a Rhondda<\/a> valley on Thursday.<\/p>\n Emergency services were called to the scene of a raging wildfire in Porth<\/a> on Thursday evening. Locals reported seeing flames spread all the way across from Pleasant Heights to Pontygwaith within minutes. Families were evacuated from their homes as the blaze was brought under control.<\/p>\n In an update on Friday evening, police said four teenage boys, aged 14, have been arrested and released on police bail.<\/p>\n South Wales Fire and Rescue Service are currently tackling several wildfires. These are located in Tredegar<\/a>, Van Road, Garth, Blaenavon, Ebbw Vale<\/a>, Merthyr Tydfil, and Penrhys. Emergency services in Wales are so stretched that the military have been called in to assist the effort, alongside several English fire services.<\/p>\n The fire in Porth on Thursday(Image: Ellie Gosley)<\/p>\n For updates on the wildfires across the nation, you can follow our live coverage here.<\/a><\/p>\n Detective Inspector Steve Jones said on Friday evening: “These incidents put communities at risk, can impact people’s health, threaten wildlife, and divert emergency resources away from people who need us.<\/p>\n “Deliberately starting fires is a criminal offence. If you see suspicious behaviour or have information about deliberate fire-setting, please report it to Crimestoppers by calling 0800 555 111 or the police by calling 101.”<\/p>\n Get daily breaking news updates on your phone by joining our WhatsApp community here<\/a>. We occasionally treat members to special offers, promotions and ads from us and our partners. See our Privacy Notice<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police issued as statement late on Friday night after the raging wildfire took hold in a matter of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103831,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[61,3569,43612,5,6],"class_list":["post-103830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uk","tag-crime","tag-fires","tag-porth","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/117096717051900302","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1_a2d7adf2-9845-41e2-9288-1360c31e8d40.jpg\")
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