Moorland blaze now contained, says fire chief

Jonathan Dyson said there had been "no further advancement" of the fire in the last 48 hours

A vast moorland blaze which has been burning for more than two weeks has now been contained, a fire chief said.

North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service Chief Fire Officer Jonathan Dyson gave an update earlier, as efforts continued to tackle the Langdale Moor wildfire, which started on 11 August.

At its peak the fire, which was declared a major incident and described by Mr Dyson as the "most significant" he had ever dealt with, covered an area of 10 sq miles (25 sq km).

Mr Dyson said there had been "no further advancement of the fire in the last 48 hours" and thanked crews and volunteers for their efforts.

Speaking at a press conference in Pickering, he said the only areas with remaining visible flames were "well within the original cordons" that had been put in place by the crews and these were "well under control in all areas".

But the work was still ongoing, with 12 appliances, high-volume pumps and a helicopter remaining at the scene.

"Our contractors are still digging extensive fire breaks, they have dug kilometres wide in many areas and will continue to do so," Mr Dyson said.

Intense smoke billowed from the fire, as seen from Scarborough Castle on Tuesday evening

He said crews were being "realistic" in case the weather changed over the weekend, so measures would still be in place to ensure there was no further spread.

The cause of the fire remained unknown.

Mr Dyson said he did not expect evacuation measures to be "deployed in any way" as the area was safe.

He said that despite the previous "difficulties" encountered with emissions and World War Two bombs, crews had ensured there were no further ordnance explosions over the last week.

"The strategy we adopted, there was aerial support with aircrafts going over the area and dropping water in those areas to mitigate the impact on our firefighters, he said.

Mr Dyson said it was "exceptional we have lost no property, there's been no loss of life or no injuries to our staff" despite such a huge fire, adding it was a reflection of the crews that have been working.

This included the "brilliant support from crews in Humberside, South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire, Cleveland, Durham and Darlington since day one".

Mr Dyson also hailed the efforts of on-call firefighters, and thanked their families and primary employers "for allowing them to spend time away from their daily lives to tackle the blaze".

Mr Dyson said he appreciated the impact of the fire on the public, businesses and nearby residents, and the "support being shown" towards the fire service.

Firefighters have been praised for their work in helping to contain the blaze

He wanted to stress that "North Yorkshire is still open for business" and people should not be put off from visiting the county.

"All we ask is that you avoid the areas we've highlighted for safety and avoid the roads we've put the closures on," he said.

Lastly, Mr Dyson thanked the public for their donations - but said they had reached "saturation point".

He said crews had received "an abundance of cakes and supplies and drinks from everybody, which has been wonderful and the crews really appreciate it, but we're at saturation point and can no longer accept any further donations, but thanks for that".

He said that anyone wishing to make cash donations could send them to the Fire Fighters Charity.

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