Extra supervision on Ten Tors weekend after major fire

Teams will have additional briefings on fire safety

More than 2,500 youngsters participating in this weekend’s Ten Tors event on Dartmoor are being given additional briefings on fire safety following a major wild fire over the bank holiday.

The blaze broke out in the most remote area of the north moor on Sunday 4 May destroying 1,250 acres of moorland, spanning five square kilometres.

At its height 13 crews were fighting the fire in the Cut Hill area which continued for almost 24 hours, exacerbated by high winds.

The cause has been classified as “accidental” by the fire service but there is an investigation being carried out, members of Dartmoor National Park Authority were told at their meeting on Friday.

With prolonged dry weather the risk of wildfires has increased and the authority is erecting new ‘high fire risk’ signs across the moor and launching a media campaign.

Director of conservation and communities for DNPA Richard Drysdale said the fire severity index was showing as high over the Ten Tors weekend, where groups of young people take on the challenge of trekking 35,45 and 55 miles over the moor’s unforgiving terrain.

Mr Drysdale said with 2,500 young people out on the moor camping and cooking, additional briefings had taken place with all the teams, and the 35 mile contingent, which were by far the largest element, would be under “supervised cooking regimes” at their overnight stop in the Postbridge area.

These were some of the elements being put in place to ensure the management of the weekend, he said.

He said no-one had known it as dry as this as early in the year and even with some rain “the fire severity will not lessen”.

The officer and park members praised the action of the commoners who alerted the fire service to the  recent blaze and the crews who worked to stop it taking greater hold.

Park member Philip Sanders said: “We really must not lose the fact that commoners and their local knowledge were the key to getting people to the right place quickly.”

Head ranger Simon Lee said there are fire damaged bird nests and eggs but he added that there was no threat to property or people, campers or walkers as the area was so remote and five kilometres away from heavily wooded areas.