North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service says it has significantly enhanced its operational readiness over recent years to tackle the growing threat of wildfires across the county.
The fire service says the preparations focus on both advanced response capabilities and intensive preventative work, particularly relevant for environments like the North York Moors where a major moorland fire broke out in August.
The move comes as data indicates that the nature of the risk is changing. Area Manager Ben Illsley asserts that "The data is shown that we are getting more wildfires that grow into larger areas and spreading more quickly".
To counter this trend, NYFRS has invested in specialist tactical knowledge and off-road response vehicles.
A crucial development is the introduction of a dedicated, trained wildfire tactical advisor within the service. Historically, NYFRS would have been required to seek assistance from outside its jurisdiction to secure such expertise.
Complementing this expertise is the continued use of specialised equipment, namely the Argocat off-road vehicles.
Area Manager Ben Illsley says the introduction of the new kit and the specialist officer over the last few years has been vital.
"There is a register of national wildfire tactical advisers.
Historically, North Yorkshire would have to call one in from a different service, but we have our own trained wildfire tactical advisor in service now. So, we don't need to call on national resilience and that individual will also support other services moving forward.
From a response capability, not all fire and rescue services at this point in time have Argocat capabilities, but for a long period of time now, North Yorkshire has got off-road capability for dealing with wildfires.
An Argocat can get off main roads, work on top of the mall, and work directly to extinguish fires.
So for a typical wildfire, we have the capability to deal with wildfires."
While response capabilities have been improved, NYFRS maintains that prevention remains the optimal strategy for managing wildfires.
Ben Illsley says that prevention teams within the service are undertaking focused work to raise public awareness regarding the risks of wildfires.
"The data is shown that we are getting more wildfires that grow into larger areas and spreading more quickly.
Prevention is obviously better than response for something of this nature and our prevention teams undertake focused work to try and raise awareness of the risk of wildfires.
Things like reduction of use of smoking materials, disposable barbecues in areas such as those as well.
To complement that, there's been some very proactive key safety messages go out including TV and radio interviews to try and reach a wider audience and alert them to the dangers of wild fires."
NYFRS say that their officers are still carrying out monitoring and checks on the moors near Fylingdales to look for any flare ups following this summer's major fire on the moors.
They say that some areas of the forestry are smouldering, and smoke may be visible.
Rights of way on Fylingdales Moor remain closed and open access to the moor is suspended with the Fire service asking people to follow the guidance on the closures for their safety.
The investigation into the cause of the fire is on-going.
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