'Only a matter of time before someone is killed': gamekeeper issues wildfire warning to Government
Richard Bailey, Peak District Moorland Group’s co-ordinator, issued the warning to MPs on the Efra Committee as part of their investigation into the rising number of wildfires.
A gamekeeper has said that “it’s only a matter of time before someone is getting killed” unless the Government stops “deliberately building up huge fuel loads of vegetation” for wildfires.
Richard Bailey, Peak District Moorland Group’s co-ordinator, issued the warning to MPs on the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee as part of their investigation into the rising number of wildfires.
The Committee is seeking evidence on how risks are mitigated through management of land and monitoring, and which organisations and government agencies have responsibility and oversight.
It said the National Fire Chiefs Council has reported that 2025 broke the record for wildfires, surpassing the previous record in 2022.
Last August, the UK’s biggest wildfire burned for more than a month on Langdale Moor, in the North York Moors, and was declared a major incident.
The rescue effort of fire crews, farmers and gamekeepers was beset by explosions from World War Two munitions.
The blaze was eventually put out, but not before it had surged towards properties and businesses.
The fire started in a forestry block which was not actively managed and spread across unmanaged moorland.
Despite this, the Government pressed ahead with a controlled burning ban that is used to tackle fire risk, despite repeated warnings from fire chiefs.
Mr Bailey told MPs yesterday: “This continual increase in surface fuel load is having these a lot hotter fires.
“I’m biased but we need to go back to prescribed burning in a sensible fashion at the right time of year.
“We’re getting a huge build-up in vegetation in areas that previously haven’t had it and that is the reduction in grazing and prescribed burning.”
Mr Bailey said that a fire on Snake Moor, in the Peak District, last month, would have burned all the way to Sheffield if the flames had made it across the A57.
“This fuel load stuff is devastating,” he added.
“Unless Westminster stops deliberately building up huge fuel loads of vegetation, it’s only a matter of time before someone is getting killed.”
Prof Sallie Bailey, the chief scientist at Natural England, which advises the Government on the natural environment, told MPs that controlled burning can sometimes have damaging consequences.
“Burning on moorland can set off a chain of negative feedback, where the peatland becomes damaged, vegetation is lost that increases erosion which has the impact of further peatland washing off,” she said.
“If the moorland is dry and damaged you are more likely to get, rather than a flash fire, a fire that goes down into the peat.”
She said that “land management is part of the response” to wildfires and explained that Natural England wanted to ensure “there is a diversity of habitat to make sure they burn at different rates”.