North Yorkshire Langdale moor fire fighters face exploding WWII ordinance

Fire crews battling a vast moorland blaze in North Yorkshire have said they have been hampered by exploding World War Two bombs and tank shells.

Emergency services have been tackling the fire, which covers about 10 sq miles (25 sq km), on Langdale Moor, in the North York Moors National Park, since Monday 11 August.

County Chief Fire Officer Jonathan Dyson said part of the site had been a tank training ground in the 1940s and there had been more than 18 explosions as the fire had burned down through the peat to previously hidden explosives.

Mr Dyson said the fire service was treating the incident as a “significant wildfire” and had requested help from other services across England.

He said in some places crews had to adopt a “very defensive fire-fighting strategy” due to the unexploded bombs.

“As the peat continues to burn down it is finding the Word War Two ordnance and therefore exploding and we have now experienced over 18 ordnance explosions within key areas,” the officer added.

Mr Dyson said before the weekend crews had made significant progress in managing and containing the fire but, with a change due to the wind and the temperature, the blaze had “more than doubled in 24 hours”.

“The fire has made a rapid spread further north and across to the north west,” he explained.

Crews were now trying to minimise the spread and had 10 appliances committed to the operation along with 60 firefighters.

“I have today made a request to National Resilience for national assets to be deployed to the area,” the officer said.

Up to 10 appliances from other fire services across England are expected to arrive swiftly.

BBC News’ Liz Roberts has been at Rigg Farm, on the outskirts of Whitby during Wednesday.

The producer said she could feel the acrid smoke catch the back of her throat and start to sting her eyes.

She said farmers were working with firefighters at the top of the hill top try and slow the blaze’s progress – when they could find them through the smoke.

“There are teams on either side of a gully cutting into the hillside and cutting down trees to create a firebreak,” she explained.

She said the farmers and firefighters had blackened faces and sore eyes.

“It’s nasty stuff,” one farmer told her.

“It’s people’s livelihoods,” farm worker Darren Coates added.

“To see the moors and farmland burned to a crisp it is just devastating.”

Chief fire officer Mr Dyson said it had been a “truly community engaged effort” in the fire fighting.

“We’ve utilised and received great support from our local farming community.”

He said the fire had placed pressure on “business as usual” for fire fighting around the county especially as the force was largely an on-call service.

Despite the problems, the officer said they had “absolute confidence” they would bring this incident to a successful conclusion.