I watch the current developing news story, regarding the Foot and Mouth 'outbreak' in the UK, with horror. I for one can still remember the awful events which unfolded in the UK back in 2001. It was terrible ... an understatement - it was horrific and terribly sad. At the time we were still living on the outskirts of Manchester. My role as a Quantity Surveyor meant I had to travel daily to construction sites all around the Greater Manchester area & all around Northern Lancashire.
I can still remember one particular day quite vividly. On that day, which was at the time of the appalling burning pyres which were all over the UK, I had to deliver a tender in Blackburn. This meant driving through open countryside close by to Chorley. My journey took me right past a farm; in fact right past a burning 'pyre' ... which was sending a cloud of white smoke high up into the sky. The stench was unbearable. Even in the car ... I could smell it. As I passed the field I felt sick. It was an awful sight to see the carcasses of Cows being thrown into the flames and the white smoke reaching ever higher.
Even back home later in the day ... I could smell the same sickly odour of burning flesh on the air. It was not very pleasant. Not at all. The smell seemed to hang everywhere in our lives at the time ... in our clothes, on the air we had to breathe. There was nowhere to escape those appalling events ... it was on the TV, it was in discussions in the village we lived; at work ... it became etched in our minds. Something which cannot be forgotten easily.
I can remember too ... the first outbreak had not been long after the desperate days of the barricading of petrol refineries. The weeks of petrol stations having no fuel. Yes, it was not a good time to have been in the UK. I only hope this Foot And Mouth outbreak can be prevented before it becomes of similar proportion to 2001. Somehow, I don't think it will ....
