Bombs, Burning, and Blame on Fylingdales Moor

This photo taken on Shooting House Rigg shows the blackened moorland fifteen months after fire swept across twenty-five square kilometres of North Yorkshire. Grass and moss are the first to recolonise. Not long after, I think I saw a hen harrier foraging over bracken along the beck. Its conspicuous white patch on its rump the giveaway. But I may be wrong.

That noble organisation, the Moorland Association, have not been slow to blame government policy. They tendentiously claim that bureaucratic blocks on heather burning contributed to this inferno¹Beeson, Rob. “80% Destroyed, Five Years to Recover: What One Wildfire Took From the Moors.” Moorland Association, 22 July 2026, https://www.moorlandassociation.org/post/80-percent-destroyed-five-years-to-recover.[Accessed 4 October 2026].

They conveniently leave out the bombs.

The official fire service report tells a wilder story. Heat from the burning peat detonated twenty-two buried Second World War artillery shells. The fire brigade could not fight the blaze directly because the ground was exploding beneath their feet. Firefighters pulled back to distant tracks while the flames marched on²North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service. “Langdale/Fylingdales Moor Wildfire Major Incident Debrief”. NYFRS, 2026. https://www.northyorksfire.gov.uk.[Accessed 4 October 2026].

Wind threw fire tornadoes across a nine-metre wide tarmac road. A curious driver stopped to watch the smoke and tossed a burning cigarette butt into the dry grass, starting another major fire three kilometres away.

Peat fires do not care about policy debates when unexploded munitions are going off underground. Propaganda loves a simple villain. Reality prefers buried ordnance.

• 1
  Beeson, Rob. “80% Destroyed, Five Years to Recover: What One Wildfire Took From the Moors.” Moorland Association, 22 July 2026, https://www.moorlandassociation.org/post/80-percent-destroyed-five-years-to-recover.[Accessed 4 October 2026] ↩︎
• 2
  North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service. “Langdale/Fylingdales Moor Wildfire Major Incident Debrief”. NYFRS, 2026. https://www.northyorksfire.gov.uk.[Accessed 4 October 2026] ↩︎