Read the latest information about the long-term recovery efforts for the Fylingdales Moor fire near Scarborough and Whitby.

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service has published its major incident debrief following the Fylingdales Moor wildfire which you can read on their website, which is one of the most significant incidents ever faced by the service. The report provides a clear review of how the incident was handled, based on operational data, decision records and feedback from staff involved.

It highlights the strength of multi-agency partnerships, with over 30 organisations working together effectively and recognises the way the service operated in difficult and hazardous conditions and the clarity of command and specialist expertise applied throughout.

It also identifies opportunities to strengthen how the service plans for and respond to incidents of this scale, including improving wildfire pre-planning, strengthening resilience for prolonged incidents, enhancing welfare and logistical support and ensuring better access to specialist risk information.

The areas identified in the service debrief will be taken forward through a structured improvement programme to ensure learning is fully embedded and put into practice.

Recovery Coordination Group

The multiagency debrief into how partners worked together in response to North Yorkshire’s worst wildfire has also been published.

The review, undertaken by North Yorkshire Local Resilience Forum sets out a roadmap designed to support an even stronger emergency response in the future. It is the result of detailed evidence gathering and feedback on the multiagency response to the Fylingdales Moor fire last summer.

The report recognises the good practice across agencies and acknowledges the collaboration and commitment shown by partners, people and communities in the face of unprecedented danger. It also reflects on opportunities to learn, and its recommendations are designed to strengthen how agencies prepare for and respond to major incidents in the future, particularly in the face of the threats from global warming and the high likelihood of more extreme weather events. Importantly, the report also ensures ownership of all learning so that it can be embedded in the forum’s work looking ahead.

Last summer, North Yorkshire experienced the most extensive and devastating wildfire ever recorded in the county, sweeping across one of our most treasured areas of moorland. Landowners, common graziers, farmers, and local businesses were directly impacted through loss of grassland for livestock, evacuation, access restrictions, and uninsurable business interruption.

Many of those affected also played a critical role in supporting the emergency response that protected RAF Fylingdales, designated conservation sites, and key economic assets. The tireless efforts of responding fire crews, farmers, and local communities during the fire deserves high commendation. The evident risks and hazards meant that individuals demonstrated truly heroic actions in helping to fight the extensive flames, fanned by continuously changing winds.

The report - key actions to strengthen response

The report highlights the need to build on strong joint working by improving consistency, coordination and preparedness across agencies.

Central to this is a review of the county’s Response to Major and Critical Incident plan, ensuring roles, responsibilities and procedures are clearly defined and consistently understood in future incidents.

Training will also be enhanced, particularly for those leading major incidents, to ensure stronger alignment between strategic, tactical and operational decision-making.

The report also calls for better integration of organisations beyond the core emergency services – including landowners, environmental bodies and infrastructure partners – reflecting the complexity of large-scale incidents like wildfires.

Strengthening structures and resources

The wildfire response saw a range of specialist teams and cells established to manage different aspects of the incident, from logistics to public safety.

The report recommends formalising and standardising how these groups operate, including clearer roles for communications, evacuation and shelter, logistics, and scientific advice functions.

Further work will also explore additional support structures, such as dedicated arrangements for staff welfare and managing public donations during emergencies.

To improve readiness, agencies will carry out very specific joint exercises to ensure critical equipment and specialist resources – including drones, aircraft and heavy machinery – can be deployed quickly and effectively.

Planning for future wildfire risk

With increasingly hot, dry conditions linked to climate change, the report highlights the need to strengthen long-term resilience to wildfires.

This includes improving how lessons learned and local intelligence feed into risk planning, as well as contributing to national discussions about a more consistent UK-wide approach to wildfire response.

North Yorkshire Local Resilience Forum has committed to continue to press national government departments to introduce an extreme weather event funding framework, like the one which exists for flooding incidents.

Had this been a flooding incident, farmers, landowners and businesses impacted by the blaze would have had a route to compensation. National government last month confirmed there was no compensation available for those impacted by the wildfire.

North Yorkshire Extreme Weather Business Support Fund

In response, North Yorkshire Council will work with its funding delivery partner, Two Ridings Community Foundation, to put one-off limited support in place for businesses that were required to be evacuated by Fire and Rescue Service due to the danger to life risk and forced to close due to the blaze, via the North Yorkshire Extreme Weather Business Support Fund. Details will be considered on a case-by-case basis and the scheme will close on 25 August 2026.

Maximising funding and ensuring value for money

The report identifies the importance of early financial planning during major incidents, including a clearer understanding of how national support mechanisms such as the Bellwin Scheme can be used.

Embedding learning across the UK

Finally, the report commits to ensuring that learning from the Fylingdales fire is fully embedded locally and shared nationally.

The report is a publicly available document published on our website.

It complements the single agency report prepared by North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service.

The Recovery Coordination Group has now stood down, and the environmental recovery will be led by the North York Moors National Park. A report into the recovery phase of the incident will follow later this year.

Environment and Infrastructure update

The North York Moors National Park Authority continues to lead the environmental recovery as part of a coordinated partnership response. This brings together Natural England, Historic England, the Strickland Estate, the Duchy of Lancaster Estate, the Fyling Court Leet and Fylingdales Moor ESS Ltd, to oversee recovery and ensure work is carefully coordinated.

The North York Moors National Park Authority has welcomed £3.2 million in government funding through the Nature for Climate Peatland Grant Scheme to support recovery from the Fylingdales wildfire. The funding recognises both the scale of the damage caused by the fire and the national significance of the landscape affected. Alongside match funding from the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority, and contributions associated with Anglo American's Woodsmith Mine and ICL Boulby Mine, it will enable the repair of 17km of firebreaks across 1,500 hectares and work to improve long-term resilience to climate change and future wildfire risk. Forestry England is also reinstating further firebreaks on adjacent land, while Historic England has supported the archaeological response.

Peatland recovery measures will include revegetation with Sphagnum moss and the creation of water-holding features including ponds and scrapes. As well as helping to reduce wildfire risk, these interventions will support carbon sequestration, improve water quality, contribute to flood attenuation and enhance biodiversity.

Evidence from the post-fire landscape has shown that wetter areas burned less severely and are recovering more quickly than adjacent degraded peat, reinforcing the importance of restoring healthy, functioning peatland. Recovery will take many years and some impacts of the wildfire will be permanent, but extensive planning and partnership working with farmers, graziers, land managers and environmental organisations means the programme is now moving into the delivery phase, with procurement underway and restoration work set to begin in the coming months.

Wildfire awareness campaign

The tourism-focused partnership wildfire prevention campaign entitled 'Don't Spark Disaster' is now live on the North York Moors National Park Authority website. After a successful soft launch of the webpages, assets in digital and hard copy are now available for individual businesses and organisations.

Hard-copy print material is available to pick up from Whitby Visitor Centre, Danby Lodge and Sutton Bank National Park Centres, the North York Moors National Park HQ in Helmsley and from County Hall in Northallerton.

Digital assets are available in the form of posters and graphics, photography and a selection of videos, with further films to be added over the coming weeks. Links to these resources are via Spread the Message on the campaign section of the North York Moors National Park Authority webpages.

Targeted digital social media, e-news and out-of-home advertising (including digital notices at large Co-op stores surrounding the National Park), will launch this week.

Please share the public facing webpage on the North York Moors National Park Authority website and use the hashtag #DontSparkDisaster on any social media posts.

The North York Moors National Park Authority will also continue to promote responsible enjoyment of the North York Moors through its 'Share with Care' messaging, encouraging everyone who lives in or visits the National Park to play their part in safeguarding this special landscape.

For the latest updates on restoration work, please see the North York Moors website.