'Don't travel to Dartmoor to see fire's aftermath' urge crews, as flames subside
Firefighters on Dartmoor say it was the right decision to stand back and monitor last night's huge fire - rather than putting firefighters lives’ at risk by trying to put it out.
Last updated 12th Feb 2021
The fire is no longer burning but a roughly three mile stretch of moorland - which is hard to reach - near Peter Tavey outside Tavistock, remains charred.
Investigations into the cause of the fire continue.
Group commander Mike Porter says the high winds and remote location made it a difficult situation for the emergency services last night.
He said: “The safety factors of actually accessing the moors at night in the extreme weather conditions with the high velocity winds would have been a risk to firefighter safety.
“Had there have been a risk to life or property we may have had to take a different approach but we knew that the area was moorland alone.”
Crews set up watches around the incident to ensure flames were not spreading.
This morning they used drones to assess the damage.
Mr Porter added: “What we would advise is that the winds are still very strong, the weather is still bitterly cold. We know on moors that the situation can change instantly so please don’t make any attempt to make your way up there.”
Crews from Tavistock, Plympton, Princetown, Okehampton, Crownhill, Totnes, Chagford, Holsworthy and Crediton attended this incident last night, just after 6pm.
Throughout the night 4x4 vehicles carried out visual checks of the area and reported back to the central command team.
For pictures of last night's incident click here