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It’s shocking to see the images of any wildfire, the landscape lit by flames or shrouded in an orange mist, and then to hear the stories of the battle by firefighters to put it out, water-bombings, the rescuing of campers from a hill as the fire encroached.

This week's images from Galloway are reminders that, even here in dreich Scotland, we have a wildfire problem and vigilance is needed, particularly in spring, our peak period for such blazes. We may not be blasted by California’s furnace-fuelling Santa Ana winds, but we are still vulnerable.

But a fire like the one that consumed an area of the Galloway Forest Park, also raises questions. One of the first of these almost always involves climate change. Are such fires getting worse and more frequent because of climate change?

Are they part of a picture of a terrifying and more dangerous world? Or is this just what has always happened, come what may, muirburn or no muirburn, fossil fuel consumption or not?

Back in early March, the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) was already warning that most of the country had recorded below-average rainfall over winter following a particularly dry autumn. Orkney, for instance, had experienced just 34% of its typical rainfall.

“The lack of rainfall,” SEPA said, “seen during the winter period poses potential challenges for Scotland’s water resources with the coming spring and summer now relying on an above average rainfall to replenish the low groundwater levels.”

Roll on a month and a blaze has devastated swathes of the Galloway Forest Park. The fire, which, started on Friday morning at Merrick Hill, spread across the landscape to Glen Trool and Loch Doun. Satellite images released by the Met Office showed how the blaze had engulfed a large part of Galloway Forest and the surrounding area. Properties were evacuated. Residents living nearby were advised to keep windows and doors closed.

But, as reports have shown, it was not the only fire in Scotland these........

© Herald Scotland