Councillors are discussing if they needed a dedicated phone line to update people on the Langdale Moor fire.
The blaze is now no longer a national emergency, according to authorities.
Scarborough and Whitby's MP has been discussing what lessons can be learned regarding the Langdale Moor fire.
Councillor Clive Pearson represents the Esk Valley and Coast area:
" I did think in the first few days of it, we didn't get the response we wanted from people. I was getting a lot of phone calls, a tremendous lot but I couldn't give them much answer because there was no information coming out. But that did change after we did get onto the authorities.
"Some of these people in that area on a night, they said it looked very frightening.
"It was very red, and they were very worried. I do feel that those people should have had a dedicated telephone line. So that would be a priority if it happens again, we've got to remember the last fire was in 1971. So it's going back a long time."
North Yorkshire Mayor David Skaith says there'll be a thorough review:
"We as a combined authority, are not part of the local resilience forum, which is probably a bit of an oversight from government from when the combined authority has been set up. We're not unusual in that. It's the same across the country. So that's something that we'll be feeding out as well as what combined authorities and mayor's roles play at the time when we have an incident like this.
"But we'll be going into that recovery phase. We'll be working with North Yorkshire Council, the emergency services and others to make sure that any learnings we can take from are implemented."
Alison Hume, who was only elected in July 2024, said it was a new experience for her:
" It was my first experience of being a public servant when the public actually turned to me and asked for help and I was very grateful for the support of councillors and other colleagues during those first few days until other communications took over. I'd just like to mention that I did press for a dedicated phone line for constituents to ring, but I was unsuccessful in getting that set up.
"I do believe that was an oversight, and I think that it's a live incident, but in the lessons learned, I do think that the local resilience forum should look at always providing a phone line for people to ring in what was an emergency."
She says she was also worried about the health impact locally:
" I was also concerned about the amount of smoke and ash that was falling on the villages, particularly, and raised that with [North Yorkshire Council Chief Executive] Richard Flinton and received assurances that closing doors and windows were sufficient. It will be interesting to see what lessons are learned from that because as I understand, the particulates, which are part of the burning are actually dangerous.
"Having gone up to the site on day nine and seeing how close the fire got to RAF Fylingdales, I'm going to be asking the government whether national resilience should be triggered when a critical military facility is within scope of the fire."
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