North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service is increasing its use of drones and helicopters, whilst discouraging disposable barbecues, to prevent a repeat of last year's devastating wildfires.
In a bid to avoid future emergencies, the force is actively discouraging the use of disposable barbecues in vulnerable areas, whilst simultaneously increasing its use of advanced technology such as drones and helicopters.
Chief Fire Officer Jonathan Dyson has outlined the significant steps the service is taking to enhance its response capabilities, particularly in remote locations where communication and access can often be challenging.
He noted that the service is transitioning away from relying solely on partner agreements for drone support and is instead developing its own in-house capabilities to speed up response times.
Chief Fire Officer Dyson said:
"I don't think any chief fire officers would think that they would be in a position where they're having to contract with helicopters. Nonetheless, that's the position we found ourselves in and as ever we're approaching that with gusto to make sure that we can make that provision. Where the service has had, we had agreements in place with both police and partners with other fire and rescue services for drone provision. The service will move to a self provision of drone capability. We're also exploring and we have demonstrations next month, actually, on the moor itself because the service had to utilise star link through local arrangements for us to actually have incident communications in these super remote rural areas. So when we are strengthening our technology position, we represent strengthening the incident command, the radio comms, everything around here. So we are already well underway with this recommendation."
Alongside these technological upgrades, the fire service is tackling the everyday fire hazards posed by the public, specifically the use of disposable barbecues.
The force is collaborating with the National Fire Chiefs Council's wildfire group, which contributes to a broader national prevention committee.
Although disposable barbecues are not currently banned, the fire service is keen to ensure that the public understands the severe risks they pose to the natural environment when used irresponsibly.
Here's Group Manager for Langdale Assurance, James Manning:
"We are looking at this nationally with the National Fire Chiefs Council, it's part of the wildfire group that feeds into the overall prevention committee. While they aren't banned, what we're trying to do is try and discourage the use of them, let's just say, and then also try and if people are having to use them and that they do use them in a safe manner. So we're just making sure that as well that all our advice to try and keep people as safe as possible in the use of these, yeah, unfortunately we've seen some devastating effects of the use of these when they've not been used appropriately. Yeah, we will continue to work with the National Fire Chiefs Council, but also while they are still readily available, try and encourage people to use them in a safe manner to avoid any sort of wildfire spread."
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