Walkers on North York Moors warned as area is at 'heightened risk of fire'

North Yorkshire’s deputy chief fire officer Jon Foster said that both the moors and Yorkshire Dales national parks are currently rated as having a risk level of “very high” due to the recent dry spell of weather.

During an online update with North Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner Julia Mulligan, Mr Foster appealed for people to be careful.

He said: “I would urge people if you are taking exercise in these areas to please, please be careful, be vigilant do not take cigarettes and lights and don’t be tempted to take a barbecue because that is just not what we need. We don’t want moor fires and wildfires developing in such a difficult time.”

There has also been an increase in people burning waste in their own gardens due to recycling centres in the county closing, he added.

In the last four weeks, the service has been called to 30 fires at residential addresses linked to the burning of waste.

Mr Foster also revealed that since the lockdown came into force four weeks ago the service has seen a 26 per cent decrease in the number of incidents compared to the same period in 2019. There were 464 call-outs in the last four weeks compared to 634 12 months ago.

The biggest drops were in the number of automatic fire alarms, which has dropped by half and road traffic collisions, with just four incidents attended by the fire and rescue service during the lockdown, compared to 23 in 2019, a drop of 82 per cent.

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