Huge wildfires in Yorkshire 'inevitable' as Government urged to avoid 'Los Angeles-style tragedy'

Countryside organisation the Moorland Association says huge wildfires are "inevitable when vegetation is allowed to grow unchecked".

It comes after the most recent in a series of large blazes on Marsden Moor, earlier this month which broke out close to Cupwith Reservoir, near Huddersfield.

At one point it was 10km by 5km long and "progressing in the direction of Manchester", according to West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue.

“Like Los Angeles, our politicians have ignored the build-up of vegetation which their own red tape has created,” said Andrew Gilruth, CEO of the Moorland Association whose members own more than a million acres of moors in England and Wales.

“They have also ignored how the sharp fall in relative humidity over the past 20 years means that our vegetation is much more flammable.

"Sooner or later there will be a strong wind blowing the wrong way with our northern cities most at risk."

In a letter sent to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper in January, the association blamed Natural England for blocking land managers over the years from burning moorland - a traditional practice to encourage the growth of new heather shoots that serve as food for wild grouse.

In February 2021, the Government introduced new regulations banning burning heather on protected blanket bog peatland without a licence in England.

The association says this "immediately led to a further 73 per cent reduction in fuel load management through traditional winter burns".

The letter accuses Natural England of "tedious overregulation" due to "ideological antipathy to grouse shooting - something Natural England shares with its soulmates in the RSPB".

The association states: "Now, with so little of the traditional fuel load reductions and firebreaks created by winter burns, it has become a question of when, not if a megafire erupts."

Natural England, a quango which receives funding from Defra to protect and restore England's environment, is also blamed for giving incentives for farmers to reduce the number of sheep they graze.

Figures from Defra show over the last two years the total number of sheep and lambs fell by seven per cent to 13.8 million in 2024.

This is equivalent, the Association says, to 600,000 tonnes less vegetation being removed from the countryside each year.

After responding to its first wildfire call out of the year last week Penrith Fire Station blamed "landlords and other organisations forcing farmers hands in the removal of sheep" resulting in " increasing vast acres of dead brown ground with the potential for serious harm".

The National Fire Chiefs Council say they are seeing increased number of wildfires crossing from countryside into built up areas.

The intense heatwave the UK experienced over the summer in 2022 resulted in a total of 983 wildfires.

It advocates "effective and appropriate land management to provide a fire resilient landscape".

This includes "fuel biodiversity, burning, grazing and cutting to reduce the amount of vegetation or fuel available in key areas of our landscapes".

The main causes of wildfires remain human carelessness. Peak District National Park says the majority are unintentional and due to barbeques, discarded cigarettes, litter like glass and campfires.