Langdale, North Yorkshire

Incident Type: Resilience

This week, two of our drone pilots joined forces with colleagues from North of Tyne Mountain Rescue Team after a request from North Yorkshire Mountain Rescue Silver Group drone support at the large wildfire near RAF Fylingdales.

On Thursday, our pilots Carl and Brian, along with colleagues from NoTMRT, deployed to assist. Using drones equipped with thermal cameras, they carried out multiple flights to detect hotspots smouldering in the undergrowth and assess risks to nearby communities and property.

Speaking afterwards, Carl said:
“We were tasked to use our thermal imaging cameras, which allowed us to see through the smoke, to assess woodland for the encroachment of fire and also to check how close the fire had got to residential areas that had already been evacuated. It’s hard to describe the scale of the devastation. As one of only two drones with thermal imaging capability operating that day, and with firefighting helicopters operating nearby, it was vital that we operated with extreme care.”

The incident saw a truly national response from several mountain Resuce teams from across Mountain Rescue England and Wales , local police, fire and rescue services from across the country and local farmers and land owners.

Thanks to everyone involved, the fires are now contained, though monitoring continues to prevent flare-ups.

We’re proud of our drone team and grateful for the opportunity to contribute to such a major multi-agency effort.

The incident involved 4 team members for 13h 45m and a further member for 1 hour.