Fire on the Moor

Fire on the Moor At about 2pm on Easter Saturday a fire started near the stand of Scots Pine, below the Rocky Valley. We cannot be certain as to how the fire started but, later that afternoon, when I went up to get a progress report, a woman (whose name I neglected to ask in all the excitement) was telling a police officer that she had seen a group of youngsters aged 14 or 15, in that area with a campfire. She said she had warned them of the danger, and one had said words to the effect “It’s all right. I know how to control a fire, I am (or I used to be) a boy scout.” Shortly thereafter, she said, she saw the fire out of control and rang the Fire Brigade. Of course, this is all hearsay, but it sounds entirely credible and I am sure that many more fires are started accidentally by youngsters messing about on the Moor than are ever started deliberately. There was publicity about three young men from Bradford being arrested. It is believed that they had been involved in starting another fire, after the original was already going. Within two hours of the raising of the alarm, Bradford had agreed to the hire of a helicopter. The nearest that could be found at short notice was in Bedfordshire. By the time that arrived it was too late for it to do much that day. The next day it was continuously in use scooping water from the Panorama Reservoir and dumping it on the fire. It is entirely probable that, had the helicopter arrived in time on Saturday, the fire might have been extinguished by nightfall. The Fire Brigade put into effect a plan already agreed with Bradford. This involved bringing in fire fighters from North and South Yorkshire as well as West Yorkshire. I do not know how many fire appliances were involved at the height of the fire, but it was probably 15-20. The fire fighters did a magnificent job. In order to fight a moorland fire, they must first find a source of water. In the case of this latest fire that meant the Lower Tarn and Backstone Beck. To get water out of Backstone Beck, heavy pumps had to be carried over the Moor, over very difficult terrain, together with hoses etc. We have nothing but praise for these firefighters and the Countryside Service Officers who worked so hard over the next three days. Initially the fire was being blown towards White Wells and seemed to be being got under control. Then the wind changed taking the fire down towards the town and across to Backstone Beck. That was when, on Saturday evening, large parts of the town were enveloped in vile yellow/brown smoke and a few houses had to be evacuated. In overall terms this was not a particularly large fire. The fire on Heber’s Moss in 2006 affected an area roughly ten times larger. But this fire had much more publicity and produced much more of an effect because it was so close to the town. It is relevant that this same area of moorland experienced fires in 2016 and 2017 though they were somewhat smaller. This must give rise to optimism, since after those fires the Moor regenerated very swiftly, so there is good reason to believe that the vegetation may come back quite quickly. So why did the fire become established so quickly? This fire started at a time of year when fires are unusual. It happened (almost certainly) because we have had a long dry spell when there was still plenty of dead bracken from last year. This will burn very readily. The heather was last year’s heather without this year’s new growth, so again that burned easily. In a few weeks’ time, with new growth of vegetation on the Moor it is unlikely the fire could have taken hold so fast. And why have we had this unseasonal long dry spell? Well I think we must assume that climate change is producing longer, anomalous spells of both wet and dry weather. And lessons for the future? This fire did not start at a time when the Met Office had warned of high fire risk. Hitherto, signs warning about fire risk have only been put up at times when the Met Office has issued a warning. I think this needs to change. We have not yet had a committee meeting to formulate a new policy, but my feeling is that Bradford should amend its bylaws to forbid unauthorized open fires and barbecues on Ilkley Moor at any time, and that appropriate signs saying that fires and barbecues are forbidden should be erected at all entrance points to the Moor. The other lesson should be (as our MP John Grogan has pointed out) that the Yorkshire Local Authorities should consider joining together to enter into a contract with a helicopter firm to ensure that a helicopter is immediately available to fight moorland fires anywhere in our area. Current signage used Owen Wells Chair, Friends of Ilkley Moor April 2019 .

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