The following recommendations have been developed from the learning identified throughout this report. They are intended to strengthen preparedness, command, operational delivery and organisational resilience for future large scale and protracted wildfire incidents, while supporting continuous improvement at both Service and partnership levels.
Where learning points appeared in more than one section, these were assessed to determine whether they represented distinct issues or different perspectives of the same underlying problem. Where overlap existed, learning was consolidated into a single learning opportunity supported by multiple evidence sources. This ensured proportionality, avoided duplication and maintained a clear line of sight between learning and recommendations.
Ref |
Learning theme |
Key section(s) in report |
Recommendation |
Ownership |
| R1 | Planning Assumptions | Wildfire Risk Pre-planning; Scale and System Impact; Business Continuity | Review and update wildfire planning assumptions to reflect increased scale, duration, endurance and concurrent incidents | NYFRS |
| R2 | Site-Specific Risk
Information |
Pre-Incident Planning and Risk Information; Operational Delivery | Strengthen site-specific wildfire pre-planning, including fuel load, access, control lines, water sourcing options, permissions and environmental constraints | NYFRS |
| R3 | Predictive
Intelligence |
Fire Behaviour and Environmental Conditions; Strategic Coordination | Enhance training and use of predictive intelligence (weather, fire behaviour and environmental modelling) to support anticipatory decision-making | NYFRS |
| R4 | Training and Competence | Training and Development | Strengthen workforce wildfire competence through targeted training, exercising and specialist tactical development | NYFRS |
| R5 | Command Infrastructure | Command and Control; Strategic Holding Area (SHA); Incident Command Unit (ICU) | Build resilience into command infrastructure, including portable facilities and sustained staffing models | NYFRS |
| R6 | Operational Assurance | Command and Control; Operational Assurance | Strengthen and scale operational assurance arrangements for complex and prolonged incidents | NYFRS |
| R7 | Assets and Equipment | Assets and Equipment; National Resilience; SHA Operations | Review wildfire asset capability, interoperability, real-time tracking and sustainment arrangements | NYFRS |
| R8 | Welfare and Logistics | Facilities and Feeding; Welfare; Health and Safety; SHA Operations | Develop scalable welfare, feeding and logistical support arrangements for prolonged and geographically dispersed incidents | NYFRS |
| R9 | Drone capability | Situational Awareness; Operational Intelligence; Aviation Support | Formalise and expand assured drone capability within wildfire response | NYFRS |
| R10 | Decontamination PPE and RPE | Health, Safety and Risk Management; PPE and RPE; Facilities and Feeding | Strengthen wildfire decontamination arrangements and consider appropriate wildfire specific PPE and flexible RPE options | NYFRS |
| R11 | Workforce resilience | Duty Systems and Workforce Resilience; Welfare | Develop pre-planned relief, rotation and endurance models for prolonged incidents | NYFRS |
| R12 | Business continuity | Scale and System Impact; Business Continuity | Strengthen business continuity and surge capacity planning across operational and support functions | NYFRS |
| R13 | Rota structures | Duty Systems and Workforce Resilience; Strategic Leadership Capacity | Review operational officer capacity and rota arrangements | NYFRS |
| R14 | Strategic risk management | Wildfire Risk Preplanning; Local Resilience Forum Arrangements | Review wildfire risk scoring within the Community Risk Register to reflect emerging and climate driven risks | LRF |
| R15 | Multi-Agency
Pre-Planning |
Partnership Working; Pre-Planning | Establish an LRF-led multi-agency wildfire pre-planning framework aligned to high-impact risks | LRF |
| R16 | Governance and decision-making | Command and Control; SCG and TCG Arrangements | Reinforce role clarity between SCG, TCG and incident ground through training, exercising and clear briefing structures | LRF |
| R17 | Information and Risk Sharing | Pre-Incident Risk Information; Fire Behaviour; UXO Information | Improve consistency, availability and sharing of wildfire risk data across agencies | NYFRS/LRF |
| R18 | Partnership Integration | Local Landowners and Farmers; Partnership Working | Improve integration of non Category responders and strengthen coordination structures | LRF/land managers |
| R19 | Communications | Internal Communications; External Communications and Media Messaging; Warning and Evacuation | Strengthen internal and external communications, including misinformation management, warning and informing, and political leader updates | NYFRS/LRF |
| R20 | Specialist Risk (UXO) | UXO and Defence Land | Improve access to specialist risk information, strengthen national capability and ensure effective learning transfer |
NYFRS / LRF / MOD |
| R21 | Funding and
Recovery |
Bellwin Funding and Approval Process; Recovery | Provide structured feedback to MHCLG to improve the timeliness and clarity of Bellwin funding arrangements for atypical, high cost incidents | NYFRS / LRF
/ MHCLG |
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