The network works.
A farmer rings me to tell me his daughter has seen a verge side campfire on the moor at Stanage.
I’m on an important task (picking up pizza) so i ring ranger colleagues. They’re on scene in under 2 minutes. Two men from Oxford are adamant that their campfire ‘isn’t an issue as they’ll be watching it closely’.
Extinguished.
*As an aside, the BMC Wildfire Engagement Officer made a pertinent point at the Stanage Forum AGM the other week, that whilst campfires and wildfires in the Peak District National Park have been non-stop news all Summer, that news isn’t reaching the majority of the people that come here to undertake fire-tourism. London, Kent, Peterborough, Newcastle, Wales and Ipswich are just some of the places folk have come from this past season to release their inner pyromaniac. That, plus the explosion of content on social media of people still lighting fires in the Peak District landscapes despite the devastation, means the activity will doubtless continue.
Anyway, an elderly couple who live below Carhead Rocks had also driven past the fire and had subsequently gone home and spent an hour fretting about who to tell. They eventually told a friend who told her husband who told me.
He seemed rather impressed when i cross referenced times and said ‘that would have been extinguished by rangers before the elderly couple even got home’.
The network works.
The 24/7/365 default response to a lit bbq, campfire or fire in the landscape is to dial 999 and provide an accurate location to the Fire and Rescue Service 🚒.