NEWS UK wildfires spark industry response
THE NATIONAL Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) stated that the Easter weekend fires on Ilkley and Marsden moors, and the recent rise in such fires, has not only ‘devastated habitats’, but were also a ‘stark reminder of how quickly’ they take hold, with ‘additional pressures’ on fire and rescue services (FRSs) nationwide as a consequence. More than 100 firefighters and 12 appliances from West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service (WYFRS) tackled the fires, but over 500 acres or 200 football pitches of moorland were destroyed at Ilkley alone. Citing the Saddleworth Moor and Winter Hill fires in 2018, the NFCC also noted that the recent fires were ‘earlier than expected’, and had placed demands on all FRSs in a ‘worrying indicator of what may be to come’. The NFCC has been ‘quickly putting in place national resilience arrangements’ to ‘ensure the right support is mobilised from across the country’, so that firefighters can ‘deal with these fires as effectively and quickly as possible’. Its National Resilience Assurance Team (NRAT) provided support after WYFRS requested mutual aid, consisting of ten crewed appliances, 60 firefighters, a logistics cell, burn teams and specialist wildfire advisors. Its NRAT also provided ‘invaluable
support’ and worked to the National Coordination and Advisory Framework to ‘ensure a flexible response is put in place’. A series of ‘very effective’ helicopter water drops via United Utilities aided WYFRS firefighters in preventing further spread, with support coming from Cumbria, Merseyside, North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and Tyne and Wear FRSs under the national arrangements. The NFCC concluded by warning
that there had also been fires in the Peak District, Cornwall, Derbyshire, Dorset, Wiltshire, Rotherham, Northern Ireland and Wales, and asked the public ‘to be careful when in the countryside during period[s] of sustained hot weather’. Roy Wilsher, NFCC chair, stated:
‘These large-scale fires are a stark reminder as to just how quickly these type of fires take hold. It is yet
another example of why fire services need to be resourced to risk, as well as demand. It is evident to see how much resource has been needed across the country to deal with these fires; last year we saw the highest number of grass fires in recent history and this pattern is being repeated, despite it being so early in the year. ‘As part of our national resilience
work, we have worked around the clock to assist and support fire services dealing with these incidents. These plans will remain in place for the coming days and I would like to thank everyone for their tireless work over the past few days and Easter weekend. ‘We reiterate time and time again the dangers of barbecues and being careless with rubbish and cigarettes. Unfortunately we have seen irreplaceable wildlife and wild areas destroyed this weekend due to irresponsible behaviour.’ Another wildfire in Scotland
was thought to have been ‘one of the largest seen in the UK for years’, with more than 20 square miles of grassland destroyed. BBC News reported on the fire near Paul’s Hill wind farm in Knockando, south west of Elgin, with dry conditions and high winds causing flames to ‘spread aggressively’, and 80 firefighters from the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) tackling the fire at its height. SFRS area manager and chairman of the Scottish Wildfire Forum Bruce Farquharson said that crews were set to ‘remain on site for days’.
10 JUNE 2019
www.frmjournal.com
He also noted that the fire had
been ‘shaping up to be one of the largest wildfires that the UK has seen in years’, as ‘the conditions, including the weather, the terrain and the sheer scale of the incident have made it very challenging. This type of incident requires a large amount of resources, and we have called upon the resilience of our national service to tackle it. ‘We have received additional
support from our partners – which includes two helicopters which have been working alongside our crews to tackle the fire in difficult- to-reach areas. We are advising people who live in the path of the smoke to keep their windows and doors closed as a precautionary measure. Additionally, many roads in the area remain closed and we are asking people to avoid the area for their own safety, and to allow full access for the emergency services’. SFRS noted that several
properties near to the fire were evacuated as a precaution, while the smoke plume created ‘could be seen from space’. Police, ambulance and local estate staff alongside Forestry Commission and local wind farm workers assisted with fighting the fire. The blaze had been ‘burning on four different fronts’, and the SFRS was on wildfire alert nationwide, due to the ‘tinder dry’ conditions over the Easter weekend
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