UK heatwave: Government very concerned about wildfire risk on 'tinderbox' of Yorkshire moors

The comments from Kit Malthouse came after Yorkshire MP has warned that the moorland is an "absolute tinderbox" at the moment.

Jason McCartney, the Conservative MP for Colne Valley, told Parliament that in moors in the Pennines in his constituency have already suffered a series of devastating fires earlier this year.

He added: "It is an absolute tinderbox up there at the moment. So will the Minister just join me in getting the message out there again that it is illegal to have barbecues, fires and fireworks up on the moors?"

Mr McCartney said those found guilty of such offences could face prison, as well as a £2,500 fine.

"We don't want any more devastating moorland fires," he said.

Cabinet Office minister Mr Malthouse said in response: "I'm more than happy to reinforce his message. We have issued a red alert for wildfires, we are very concerned and I know all fire and rescue services are stood up to deal with them as fast as they possibly can."

Patches of England were at “exceptional risk” of wildfires on Monday, the Met Office said, with an alert spreading to most of the country for Tuesday.

“I haven’t even seen the exceptional category being used in the times I’ve looked at the Wildfire Index before,” Kathryn Brown, the Wildlife Trust’s director for climate action, said.

“In southern Europe, we’re seeing these stories of these horrendous wildfires taking hold all over the place and these are the conditions that we’re going to be more prone to.

“We need to be much more aware, and the public needs to be much more aware, of the wildfire risk.”

Blazes across France, Spain, Portugal and Greece have levelled thousands of acres of land and forced the evacuation of locals and holidaymakers.

The National Trust has warned against lighting barbecues or campfires in open countryside and dropping litter such as glass bottles.

“We’re on tenterhooks that someone is careless with a cigarette butt or thoughtless by lighting barbecues and us having to deal with a wildfire,” the charity’s conservation head Ben McCarthy said.

“They destroy the habitat they rip through and also all the animals and plants that occur there and make up those habitats.

“At the Marsden Moor (in West Yorkshire) fire back in 2019, when we surveyed the site after the flames had been extinguished, we saw lots of burnt-out reptiles and amphibians, burnt-out nests.”

Rainfall has been scarce recently, with less than 1mm recorded in the north east and north west between July 6 and 12, with none across the rest of England.

Along with making wildfires more likely, the RSPB is worried about the harm to bird populations over the next couple of days.

“The birds that we see in our own gardens will really struggle because we’ve lost many natural sources of water over the past century,” the charity’s Anna Feeney said.

“A lot of ponds and wetlands have been drained for various reasons on farmland or just out on the wider landscape.”

She urged homeowners to put out basins of water so birds can drink and clean themselves.

Fish are also at risk, according to the Environment Agency, with the heat triggering deadly algal blooms which reduce oxygen levels in streams and ponds.

Anyone who finds distressed fish should avoid moving them and report them to an incident hotline on 0800 80 70 60.