FOI Request 2113

Subject: Wildfire Planning

Status: Complete

Date received: February 2025

Question Asked:

1. Please would you

   a) list the biggest five landowners in your area in terms of hectares they manage and

   b) where these landowners have submitted a Wildfire Response Plan, the latest version of it together with any Risk Assessment they have provided.

2. Provide your own Risk Assessment as a Fire and Rescue Service on the threats facing your firefighters in tackling moorland fires.

Our Response:

1 a) list the biggest five landowners in your area in terms of hectares they manage

We do not hold a list of the five biggest landowners in Cheshire

1 b) where these landowners have submitted a Wildfire Response Plan, the latest version of it together with any Risk Assessment they have provided.

We do not hold Wildfire Response Plans for these landowners nor any risk assessments.

2. Provide your own Risk Assessment as a Fire and Rescue Service on the threats facing your firefighters in tackling moorland fires.

Cheshire Fire and Rescue (CFRS) have a Standard Operating Procedure for Wildfires which has been specifically designed for CFRS needs. In this document there is a Operational Risk Assessment:

foi_2113_ora_wildfires.pdf

In addition to the ORA there are further Hazard and Control Statements which cover Firefighting operations at wildfires specifically:

Fire behaviour

Extreme Fire behaviour

foi_2113_risk_assessments_wildfires.pdf

Undetected fire spread

Environmental impact

foi_2113_risk_assessment_wildfire.pdf

Under Section 16 of the Freedom of Information Act we are obliged to provide advice and assistance, therefore in order to provide you with further reassurance we have attached the documents listed above.

Cheshire Fire and Rescue service also have four wildfire units with Argocat All Terrain Vehicles with equipment based at specific stations. The Wildfire Unit consists of a team of at least four firefighters with specialised equipment. We also use the LACES protocol which is an internationally used protocol to manage safety at wildfire incidents and we are an active member of FOG (Fire Operations Group).

Cheshire’s consideration of fuel loads on moors is detailed in our SOP and associated Risk Assessment and Hazard Statements. The fire behaviour displayed in the event of a fire breaking out and the firefighting tactics we would employ to deal with this will be informed by the SOP and the Training and Equipment available to our Wildfire Crews.

I have also provided a link to the NFCC position statement on wildfires:

Wildfires position statement - NFCC

Outcome: Information Provided

FOI responded to within timescales: YES

Further action: INTERNAL REVIEW