1.3       Fire synopsis between 26/06/2025 and 04/07/2025 (NYFRS in attendance)

1.3.1    On the 26/06/2025 at 18:38 a 999 call was made to NYFRS Fire Control by a member of the public who was out hiking stating there was quite a lot of smoke from a forest area North of Dalby Forest.  A single fire engine was mobilised as an emergency response as per NYFRS procedure for a fire sighted in the open.

1.3.2    NYFRS attended with a single fire engine with Crew Manager [redacted] as the Incident Commander. There was difficulty locating and accessing the incident due to the terrain (Image 1). The first attendance was at 20:20 on 26/06/2025.

1.3.3    Station Manager [redacted] attended later on that evening after being assigned by the Duty Tactical Officer and NYFRS Control.  [redacted] took charge of the incident and requested additional resources as well as requesting a drone from North Yorkshire Police.

1.3.4    Forestry England were contacted and made an attendance the following day on the 27/06/2025, additional resources were requested from Foresty England to help control and stop the fire from spreading.

1.3.5    Firefighting operations at this point were difficult, the fire was deep seated in the peat and roots of trees, access to water was limited due to the area and the vegetation was dense meaning firefighters were not able to access the fire with equipment.  The fire continued to burn for the next five days with firefighting actions being carried out to help stop the spread.

1.3.6    NYFRS had resources in attendance for the next five days until Foresty England provided heavy machinery on 1/07/2025.  Heavy machinery was used to create fire breaks and stop the fire from spreading into other areas of forestry and moorland.

1.3.7    Tracks used to access the fire were excavated further to help stop the fire spreading and a drain area was completely dug out (Image 4) to create another fire break.  The river to the North of the fire was utilised as a natural fire break.

1.3.8    Following completion of the firebreaks the responsibility of monitoring the incident was handed over to Forestry England.  On 04/07/2025 a formal external handover form was completed, and the incident was handed over to Forestry England where watching briefs were being maintained.  This is an established practice for situations in which a fire cannot be completely extinguished but remains within designated control lines and is supervised by a responsible person. See appendix F for a copy of the external handover form.

1.3.9    The handover form was sent electronically to [redacted] and confirmed that; the fire will be left to burn within the confines of the fire breaks, NYFRS would attend again if the fire breached any of the fire breaks and if this happened a 999 call would need to be made requesting NYFRS attendance.  The handover form is a formal procedure for NYFRS and at this point the responsibility for the fire was handed over to Forestry England.