North Yorkshire firefighters declared an unprecedented major incident today (July 19) as every appliance was used to tackle large fires across the county.
North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service tweeted this evening (July 19): "Declaring a major incident ensures that our partners are aware and lines up to support us if necessary.
"We’re still here to keep you safe and respond to your call if you need us
"Today has been like no other with a major incident being declared by NYFRS.
"Every appliance in North Yorkshire has been utilised to multiple large fires across the county and continue to do so."
Among the many fires was one tackled by firefighters from the Richmond Fire Station.
They posted on Facebook: "We arrived to this large field fire and made up for a further 3 appliances.
"This changed to 8 and water bowser due to a sudden change in the strength and and direction of the wind.
"Jumping roads and fields it has currently covered an area of 500,000sqm of farmland."
NYFRS tweeted further: "Our resilience plans have been put into action and we’ve responded to a number of large incidents today.
"We’ve still be able to retain the ability to respond to threats/ risks to life across the city and county.
"We couldn’t do what we do without the amazing efforts of our on-call fire fighters – all residents of their local communities – who work alongside our full time crews to keep the people of North Yorkshire and the City of York safe, and feeling safe.
"A big shout out to our call centre staff – they are fantastic. If you phone us for help, please be patient, they’ve been very busy today It’s been a bit warm and dry for a while and there are a lot of possible sources of fire out there so please be careful."
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