David Skaith, Mayor of York and North Yorkshire, and Jo Coles, Deputy Mayor for Policing, Fire and Crime said:
“Today, we have published our response to the North Yorkshire Local Resilience Forum's debrief into the Fylingdales Moor wildfire.
The Fylingdales Moor fire was a stark warning. Incidents of this scale can no longer be treated as rare or exceptional.
The response from firefighters, farmers, landowners, volunteers and local communities was outstanding, but we cannot rely on goodwill alone. As the risk of wildfires grows, so too must our preparedness.
The lessons from this incident are clear, we need stronger resilience, better coordination and a more robust approach to preventing, responding to and recovering from major wildfires.
The Fylingdales Moor wildfire was initially started by someone believed to have been cooking using a naked flame, such as a campfire or gas burner, at a remote location and that's why we are calling on all supermarkets to stop the sale of disposable BBQs in our region and are backing national calls for an all-out ban.
It's also why we are making our response to the NYLRF report public. Transparency matters, but transparency must lead to action.
Please find our letter to the Chair of the Local Resilience Forum attached.”
