A PARK ranger has said serious damage to an endangered moors peatland has been averted, after a blaze broke out alongside a heritage railway line.

Eight fire engines and two of North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue’s all-terrain vehicles were sent to fight the blaze on the North York Moors at about 2pm yesterday afternoon (Monday, May 9.)

The fire had taken hold on an escarpment at Newtondale near Levisham, next to the North Yorkshire Moors Railway line and crews from as far away as Skipton and Northallerton attended with specialist equipment for dealing with wildfires.

The heritage railway, which has 18 miles of railway between Pickering and Whitby, had to temporarily delay some services to allow fire crews access to the area.

By 5.30pm the emergency response was scaled back, with three fire engines remaining to dampen down the flames and deal with the remaining hotspots. Fire crews revisited the scene this morning to confirm the fire had not flared back up.

National park ranger David Smith, who went out to survey the site, said the fire covered approximately 60,000 square metres and was contained to an area of dead bracken.

More serious damage to the moor’s peatland was avoided.

“Fortunately the wind was blowing from the east and prevented it spreading across the moorland,” he said.

“It was mainly dead bracken that caught fire – at this time of year in May there’s a lot of dead bracken about and during a dry period it’s like tinder box.

“But luckily the ground is still quite wet and so the area should recover quite quickly. If it had got onto the moorland and peat itself then the fire can burn quite deep into the peat and damage it, so it could have been a lot worse."