Plans to try and reduce wildfires across North Yorkshire
The Fire and Rescue Service is hoping to attend less wildfire incidents this year and beyond
North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service says plans are in place to try and reduce wildfires this year and beyond.
It reckons upskilling, extra training and equipment as well as educating the public will help.
It is as there were nearly 25,000 incidents nationally in June, July and August last year, almost four times the number in summer 2021 and the highest for this period in at least a decade.
Adam Farrow is the prevention manager at North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue, he said: "Last year was a challenging year. We had a very hot summer and as did everyone else, we increased the number of incidents we went to. We did a lot on the back of that to try and reduce the number of wildfires in the next year, and also upskill and train our employees and staff so we're better equipped and trained to deal with them in the coming summers.
"We do a lot of campaigns working with other agencies like North York Moors National Park and the Yorkshire Dales to try and get the message out there to try and reduce the number of accidental moor fires and wildfires. We've also done a considerable amount of work on buying new equipment for our staff and training.
"Domestic fires is massively different to wildfires. Wildfires is a very broad term as it can apply to fires in very rural locations up on moorland where the terrain is trecherous and the access is always difficult. A wildfire can also be in farming or agriculture.
"If people aren't fully adverse with the countryside code, looking after the countryside and not using campfires on hot days or leaving glass bottles out which can reflect light, we can get some fires which no-one wanted to start or weren't even there at the time that they can properly get going but can cause devastating damage."