'Moor fires are demoralising and difficult to investigate'

The National Trust has said that the cause of a large wildfire that destroyed a swathe of its land is unknown - and that the situation has been "demoralising" for those managing the area.

Marsden Moor, near Huddersfield, has suffered numerous moorland fires in recent years and on 7 April 300 hectares (3km²) were damaged in the Deer Hill and Five Mile Post areas, before four more fires broke out at Blackstone Edge and Marsden Clough the following day.

The charity works closely with emergency services to prevent wildfires, and has urged users of the moor to be vigilant.

Countryside manager Rosie Holdsworth said: "It's really frustrating and it's very demoralising."

She added: "This is an area where we've spent hundreds of thousands of pounds, hundreds of hours, loads of effort; our staff and volunteers love these areas.

"We've just been spending all of this time restoring these areas from a fire five years ago."

The charity has an ongoing programme of tree and Sphagnum moss planting as part of its efforts to "re-wet" the moorland.

In 2019, a disposable barbecue sparked a large blaze on the moor and another fire in 2022 was caused by a man letting off a firework. He was later jailed.

Other incidents have been linked to barbecue and firework use after evidence of them, including packaging, was found on the moors.

Holdsworth said: "We're not able to speculate as to the cause this time.

"We do work really, really closely with the fire service and the police who are incredibly supportive and we're really grateful for that.

"These fires are very difficult to investigate. We'll wait to hear, in terms of the investigation, and hopefully something will come of that."

She praised West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service and neighbouring landowners who were "out all throughout the fire" trying to dampen down the flames.

Holdsworth asked the public "just to be a little bit vigilant" when using the moors.

She said: "If you see any suspicious behaviour, any fire, any smoke...just call it in to 999.

"The fire service would far rather come out and deal with a lit barbecue than a 300-hectare fire."

Richard Bailey is co-ordinator for the Peak District Moorland Group which represents moorland managers and gamekeepers.

He said six members of the group helped tackle this week's fires.

Bailey said: "You can never stop wildfires, there will always be incidents, but what we should be doing is stopping the scale of them.

"From our point of view this could be avoided if you had fuel and fire breaks for proper management, you wouldn't have these big scale fires."

Fire breaks refer to a disputed process known as controlled burning to manage the land - traditionally associated with grouse shooting.

Those in favour argue burning old, dry vegetation in a controlled manner to help grouse feed and nest also prevents a build-up of flammable material that can make wildfires worse.

Environmentalists say the process can get out of hand, inadvertently causing wildfires and destroys the natural wetland state of peat bogs, which store carbon and are home to many species of birds and insects.

Tighter restrictions on controlled burning were recently introduced by the government and licences to carry it out have to be granted by Defra and Natural England.

Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.