MOORS ABLAZE

FIRE crews were last night still battling moorland blazes in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.

Around 10 miles of heath in the Salen area, near Fort William, was alight. No homes were thought to be in any immediate danger.

After firefighters had used helicopters to drop water bombs, crews elsewhere in the Western Isles had to pull away from a blaze on the Barvas moor on Lewis for their own safety, after winds picked up and changed direction.

Elsewhere, crews were monitoring a blaze in Leverburgh on the Isle of Harris.

Firefighters also appeared to have under control a moorland blaze covering an area of eight square miles at Loudon Hill, near Darvel, Ayrshire.

Last week's heatwave has also played havoc with nature around the country.

A large number of fires continued to burn throughout SOUTH WALES.

The biggest was at Baglan, near Port Talbot, after a mountainside above the town close to the M4 motorway caught fire on Friday.

Twenty fire engines and 90 firefighters tackled the two-mile blaze throughout the night.

A 10-mile long fire had been raging for 48 hours yesterday in Arenig Bach in NORTH WALES.

In Ringwood Forest, DORSET, terrified parents Elizabeth and Kenneth Green and their two young children were airlifted from a field when a forest fire surrounded their home.

So far the long-awaited rain has failed to arrive and ease the situation. But forecasters said the weather was expected to turn tomorrow and Monday helping the work of firefighters.

Sun lovers had to swop their swimming costumes for winter woollies as the Easter sun disappeared and temperatures plunged close to zero.

British holidaymakers headed back indoors yesterday as the UK was hit by the Big Chill.

BRIGHTON beach was deserted just 24 hours after thousands had basked in glorious Good Friday sunshine.

And snow fell in Central LONDON where only a few hours before temperatures had reached 77F (25C).

In Withington, GLOS, royal beauty Zara Phillips stocked up on steaming coffee as she braved biting 40F (3C) temperatures at a Cotswolds show-jumping event.

Average temperatures across the UK dropped from a warm 75F (22C) on Friday to just 47.5F (8.5C) yesterday.

Met Office spokesman Peter Stewart said the freeze had come because a storm over the Azores, west of Portugal, which had pushed warm air over the UK, had just subsided. Colder air from Russia was being allowed to flood in over northern Europe.

But he promised: "It should get warmer again by the middle of the week."

The east coast was the worst affected yesterday with NEWCASTLE registering a nippy 44F (7C). And sun-seekers who had flocked to sizzling BOURNEMOUTH as early as 7am on Good Friday stayed at home yesterday as strong winds lashed the south coast.

Temperatures in the south of England and Wales were expected to reach a maximum 55.5-58F (13-14C) today. In Scotland and the North it will be two or three degrees cooler. It will be slightly warmer everywhere tomorrow.

Motoring organisations are expecting traffic chaos to add to the Bank Holiday gloom when 18 million holiday-makers return from Easter jaunts tomorrow.

Zoe Robson, from the AA, said: "It has been quiet over the weekend but we are expecting Monday to be bad. The worst roads will probably be the M25 around London, the M23 towards Brighton and the M1."

The organisation warned people to carry out safety checks on their vehicles before travelling. The advice came after an elderly couple died when their Ford Mondeo somersaulted off the A1(M) near Stevenage, Hertfordshire. And 31 out of 51 caravans stopped in a police safety blitz on the A303 near Wylye, Wiltshire, were found to be unroadworthy.

Thousands of other holiday-makers escaped the motoring misery by leaving the country. Airport managers BAA said 730,000 flew from Heathrow and 300,000 travelled from Gatwick.

-A MAN killed in a jet-ski accident when he ploughed into the steel legs of Blackpool pier was named yesterday. Ian Hales, 47, from Bolton, Greater Manchester was with his wife Deborah, 46, when he lost control of the jet-ski. Mrs Hales was last night in hospital in a critical condition.

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