Be fire aware

Always:

• take used cigarettes and matches home for disposal
• take your litter home
• barbecue in gardens, not the countryside
• avoid lighting campfires on the moors
• phone 999 if you spot a suspected wildfire – don’t assume someone else has reported it  

Peatland in good condition has a high water table (ground water is close to the surface) which helps to reduce the risk of it catching light. But much of the peatland in the Peak District and South Pennines is much drier than it ought to be and the dry peat will burn. Fire can spread below the surface before re-emerging and igniting the surface vegetation. Dry weather and strong winds may mean fire moves quickly across the surface of the moor, burning everything in its path.

Moorland fires are easily started by people lighting barbeques, campfires and cigarettes, and even by glass bottles. Visitors enjoying the moors may not realise that they have started a fire. Although they put their fire out, it may have caught the underground layers of peat alight. It can continue to burn, unseen, underground for days or weeks before re-emerging to ignite the surface. Dry surface vegetation can catch light from a cigarette or the heat generated by sunshine on a bottle and then spread quickly.

Did you know?  

• Moorland fires cause deep, costly and long-lasting damage to the landscape, wildlife habitats, recreational areas and even drinking water.
• In 2018 and 2019 there were a large number of devastating fires on Stalybridge, Marsden and Ilkley moors. The frequency of moorland wildfires appears to be increasing as a result of climate change. 
• Two months after Moors for Future Partnership started in 2003, a huge fire swept across Bleaklow, sending plumes of thick smoke across Greater Manchester. The devastating fire burnt the equivalent of 14 football pitches of moorland. It killed everything in its path, from ground nesting birds to sheep as well as moorland plants. Fires like this also burn a huge amount of peat, killing seeds and spores so that plants cannot naturally regrow. They also release tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.