WWII bombs explode as firefighters battle blaze

By Jack Fifield

Firefighters tackling a massive blaze in the North Yorkshire moors have been hampered by exploding wartime bombs.

Crews have been working to put out a wildfire on Langdale Moor, in the North York Moors National Park, since the evening on Monday, August 11.

A major incident was declared by North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue two weeks ago.

A total of 18 bombs have exploded as the fire burns through peat on the moors, which was used for tank training in WW2.

Shocking photographs show smoke blanketing the moors, as firefighters struggle to battle changing winds which have caused the blaze to grow across large areas.

At a media briefing held on Wednesday, chief fire officer Jonathan Dyson said 10 fire appliances and around 60 firefighters were battling the blaze, with helicopters used to create ‘wet brakes’ to try to prevent the spread.

The fire chief added that the fire effort had been hampered by unexploded World War Two bombs.

He said: “We had to adopt a very defensive firefighting strategy in one of the key sectors due to finding unexploded ordinance.

“As the peat continues to burn down it’s finding the World War Two ordinance and therefore exploding.

“We have experienced now over 18 ordinance explosions within key areas.

“Understandably, our firefighting tactics can only be defensive in those areas.”

In response to a question, he later added: “We were made aware possibly around 24 hours or more into the incident that part of the land we were firefighting on was an old World War Two tank training area.

“Therefore, that had the potential to have unexploded ordnance underneath or on the site.

“The MOD gave the assurance that they’d done the initial cleaning of the site, but then anything which is subsurface or significantly subsurface has still been maintained.

“As it burns through the peat, that’s when it’s ignited.

“We’ve had reports of 18 ordnance explosions within there, noting they can be of various sizes and the weight of the explosions.”