Military training sparks hundreds of wildfires across UK countryside
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“It seems ridiculous that here we are, 80 years after the end of the Second World War, and we’re still dealing with this legacy”
Live-fire military exercises have ignited hundreds of wildfires across the United Kingdom since 2023, with unexploded ordnance from past wars compounding the danger and complicating firefighting efforts.
According to data obtained by the BBC under the Freedom of Information Act, 385 of the 439 wildfires recorded on Ministry of Defence (MoD) land since January 2023 were directly caused by present-day army manoeuvres.
The fires have scorched vast stretches of moorland and training ranges, including Langdale Moor in North Yorkshire, where a fire that began on August 11 has reportedly been burning for weeks. Fire crews have been forced into defensive tactics due to the presence of World War II-era bombs and tank shells buried beneath the peat.
More than 18 explosions have been reported, and emergency services have called in national support to contain the fire.
The Langdale Moor fire has drawn attention to the lingering legacy of wartime training. George Winn-Darley, a local landowner, criticized the MoD for failing to clear unexploded ordnance left behind decades ago.
“It seems ridiculous that here we are, 80 years after the end of the Second World War, and we’re still dealing with this legacy,” he told the BBC
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