Motorists risking safety by ignoring Langdale Moor wildfire road closures

Council staff are having to block roads to stop motorists ignoring road closures put in place because of the Langdale Moor wildfire.

So-called ‘hard closures’ are being used in the area around the fire due to the behaviour of some drivers, Karl Battersby, North Yorkshire Council corporate director for the environment, told a press conference on the incident today.

Mr Battersby, who sits on the Gold Command committee formed in response to the fire, urged the public to help the emergency services dealing by staying away from the area.

He said: “We have a list of all the road closures that we’ve put in place on the council’s website, as well as general information, so we’d ask the public to look there before they decide to make any journeys, and we’d also ask them really to try and stay outside of the area to keep themselves safe. Please respect the fact that this is a dangerous and live incident, and we need to be able to deploy our resources to deal with the incident rather than stop people accessing places they shouldn’t be. We’ve put a number of what we’d call hard road closures in place where we’ve actually bolstered the road closures because that’s not being adhered to by some members of the public.”

He added: “Please respect the fact that we’ve closed the road. We’ve done it for a reason and whilst it will cause you disruption and difficulty in having to find an alternative route, we’re doing so for your safety.”

The A171, which crosses the moorland, is one of the roads to be shut.

Mr Battersby said: “We recognise that the A171 is a strategic link of regional importance and the fact that we’ve had to close that road has caused disruption for many businesses in the communities and we can only apologise for that, but ultimately public safety has to be our number one priority.”

The press conference also heard from Dr Victoria Turner, public health consultant at North Yorkshire Council, who said smoke from a wildfire could cause irritation of airways, skin and eyes, and this could result in coughing and wheezing, and possibly breathlessness and chest pain.

She said local NHS services had so far not seen an increase in patients due to the wildfire.  But she added: “That said, anyone who does experience discomforts such as sore eyes or cough should consider reducing the amount of activity that they’re doing, particularly outdoors.”