Residents who lost their homes to wildfires say they were left "angry and upset" after Greenpeace decided the best way to draw attention to the climate crisis was to paint a giant mural of Prime Minister Andy Burnham on the blackened mountainside above their homes. The 1,120-square-metre anti-oil image showed Burnham holding an oil drum with the words: "Our house is on fire Andy."

Two walkers, dubbing it an "intrusion into grief," took matters into their own hands and removed the artwork with rakes. Allie Evans, a 53-year-old hairdresser who was among the 36 households evacuated when the blaze came within yards of destroying properties in July, said she couldn't remember "having been so angry and upset all at once."

"It was so disrespectful to the landscapes," she said. "It was also an intrusion into local grief, which is how we felt when we came back home to see the mountain so utterly changed. It added insult to injury. I couldn't understand how an organisation that wants to protect the environment can graffiti the earth and stain rocks which are millions of years old."

Evans and Rhos-on-Sea resident Dean Ward climbed the mountain in Capelulo, Conwy, to remove the paint, fearing the hillside would get trashed by gawkers. They broke up the paint and raked flakes into the soil, though some parts were "baked" on and remain as faint stripes. Ward told Greenpeace online he took "great pleasure" in the removal, adding: "Thought Greenpeace was all about leave no trace and you do this to the mountain side."

Janet Finch-Saunders, the Senedd member for Bangor Conwy Môn, accused the group of "environmental vandalism," saying burnt hillsides should not be used "as a canvas for political protest."

Greenpeace UK's co-executive director, Areeba Hamid, defended the artwork, insisting it was "not intended to disturb [people's] grief but to draw attention to the escalating climate crisis." She noted the paint was water-based, safe for grass, plants and soil, and applied to an area where the fire had already burned away all living vegetation. "The threat," she said, "has not been a dab of water-based paint but extreme weather driven by fossil fuels."

So, to recap: Greenpeace painted a message about fossil fuels on a mountain scorched by a fire made worse by climate change, and locals used rakes to scrub it off. Everyone is angry, and the mountain remains singed. But hey, at least the paint was eco-friendly.