VIDEO: No Time for Family, Only Firefighting - A Gamekeeper’s Easter Sunday

The following was posted on Facebook by North York Moors Moorland Organisation on 20th April 2025:

The morning after...

Our gamekeeper is out this morning monitoring the major wildfire which took place yesterday, this is instead of spending Easter Sunday with his family. The smouldering moor has a high chance of re-igniting as seen in our video, we just hope that the wind stays minimal to reduce this risk.

The wildfire was started by steam train embers which ignited dry bracken along the sides of the railway track. If it wasn’t for the controlled burns that were carried out by gamekeepers during winter to reduce the fuel loads and create the fire breaks this could have been significantly worse.

18 gamekeepers from 6 different estates brought specialist equipment, and worked with local farmers and North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service who deployed 8 appliances to tackle the wildfire.

It took about 4 hours from a massive joint effort to bring the fire under control and in this period around 100 acres of vegetation were completely burnt, this included “Fenn Bog” which it may come as a surprise to some but this is actually a wet bog and yet the fire still raged through it.

Who should be taking responsibility for this?

Are the supporters of “no-burn” aware of this wildfire and what are their thoughts?

Can they look at this damage and condemn their ideas and decisions?

I would encourage and invite all of the individuals who are supporting a ban on controlled burning to visit this site and see the devastation first hand, it may make them think twice and realise that burning is an essential tool for land managers.

As it is our gamekeepers are today continuing to monitor the situation, they are also wondering why the re-wetting team have yet to show up and lend a hand.