Public urged to take steps to prevent fires in rural areas

A fire service has warned the public that even a small campfire or disposable BBQ can quickly get out of control after a period of dry weather.

The warning comes as a new report highlights the growing risk of wildfires due to climate change.

County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Services warned people to:

• Avoid lighting campfires
• Only have BBQs in designated areas and ensure BBQ coals are fully cooled before disposing of them in bins
• Take litter home with them, especially glass bottles (sunshine magnified through the glass can start set light to the ground, spreading quickly in the right conditions)
• Ensure cigarettes are extinguished properly and not thrown on the ground.

Lee Aspery, the service’s arson reduction and young people manager said: “Even a light breeze can allow a fire to spread incredibly quickly. Often rural fires present extreme difficulties for our response crews and equipment to access the location of the fire.

“Rural fires take our valuable resources away from emergency situations, such as house fires or traffic accidents, and tie our crews up for hours, even days.”

READ MORE: Essex: Farmers joined firefighters in battling field fire

READ MORE: Shropshire firefighters tackled two tractor fires one month apart

Wildfires a rising threat

Fires can cause immense harm to farmers’ profits if crops are affected, as well as damaging natural habitats, the environment, and even neighbouring residential properties.

A report published this week takes stock of extreme wildfires over the 2023-24 fire season. It concluded that wildfires now twice as likely – or even as much as four times as likely – to occur.

The State of Wildfires report was published by the UEA, UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, the Met Office and the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts.

Dr Matthew Jones, UEA, told the BBC Farming Today programme that wildfires are becoming more common in forested regions, with the subsequent carbon emissions having a damning effect on the environment.

Dr Jones referred to the recent wildfires in Greece, and, closer to home, the Wennington wildfire in east London during the 2022 heatwave. It is thought to have started in a garden, taking out over a dozen houses and progressing to nearby farmers’ fields.

Measures that can be taken, Dr Jones added, include cutting fire breaks into the landscape and reducing fuel stocks by burning off excess vegetation at times when it’s safe to do so – known as controlled or prescribed burning. 

This is controversial, and still an active area of research with varying schools of thought, but Dr Jones says evidence supports the use of prescribed burning for carbon stock reduction.

If you suspect a fire has been started deliberately, please report it to FireStoppers anonymously on 0800 169 5558 or report online at www.firestoppersreport.co.uk

Read more rural news.