With the hot, dry weather set to continue, fire crews are warning that moorland and woodland across the UK is primed to burn – and plenty of it is exactly where we ride. Fires on dry moor can move faster than you’d believe. Here’s what to do if you come across one mid-ride, courtesy of West Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service.
If you see smoke or flames
Move to a safe place and call 999 immediately – ask for FIRE. Give as much detail as you can: the size of the fire, the location and the terrain.
Don’t attempt to tackle the fire yourself, however small it looks. Moorland fires spread fast and can change direction with the wind.
If you haven’t already, get out of the area as soon as possible.
Tell them exactly where it is
This is where riders can be more useful than almost anyone else on the hill: you’re carrying GPS. Control room operators can work with any of these:
- A what3words address (the free app gives you one even offline)
- An OS grid reference – the free OS Locate app gives you one instantly, or pull it from your mapping app
- A lat/long from your bike computer or phone
- Failing that: the nearest named landmark, car park, trailhead or road
A precise location can save crews the better part of an hour searching moorland access tracks.
Don’t be the reason there’s a fire
- No BBQs, no campfires, no exceptions on the moors in this weather – and if you see someone using a BBQ on the moorland, call 999 and ask for FIRE. That’s the official advice, not curtain-twitching.
- Take glass bottles home. They can hurt people and animals, and they can magnify the sun’s rays and start a fire.
- Don’t park on dry grass at the trailhead – hot exhausts can easily start a fire.
Should you even ride?
The moors stay open during most wildfire warnings, but on extreme-risk days it’s worth checking your local fire service and National Park social feeds before heading up – crews sometimes ask people to stay off specific moors, and access tracks may be in use by appliances. If in doubt, there’s always a lower, greener loop to ride instead.
Fires don’t just close trails for a weekend – burned peat moorland can take decades to recover, and access disputes have a habit of following blazes.
Seems like odd advice. And so very British…. Couldn’t they say something more nuanced like don’t expose yourself to too much danger by tackling the fire?
So isn’t it therefore important to try to tackle it asap?
Good and timely advice. We have suffered many heathland fires in recent years here in Dorset, unfortunately a good proportion of them started deliberately or by people stupidly having camp fires or BBQ’s. The picture below is of Holt Heath (taken June 2026) and only shows a very small portion of the damage caused by a major fire in 2025, it is a long long way from recovering after 170+ acres were destroyed.
There was a small(ish) one on Froggat edge last year. I was amazed at how quickly the ferns grew back.
But still, no excuse.
Ah full forum. So after fire and a month later..
you won’t be able to tackle it yourself, even the smallest grass/scrubland fire takes way more water than you have available to extinguish.
I came across one last summer that was only a patch of around a metre squared and emptied my two water bottles onto it and it didn’t do jack to extinguish it, and there wasn’t even visible flames just smouldering.
Given how quickly it can turn to something really dangerous you’re far better off just ringing the fire service and leaving quickly.
What initially looked like nothing to me took two firefighters with huge backpacks of water with supersoakers to put it out and even then they basically ran out just as they managed to.
Sounds very sensible to me