FIRE chiefs have given assurances that they will be better prepared in the event of a repeat of the dangerous wildfires earlier this year, writes Marc McLean.
More than £1.6m has been invested nationally by Scottish Fire and Rescue service to implement a new strategy.
Wildfires ravaged parts of the Galloway Forest Park at the beginning of April and lasted almost three days.
Firefighters battled round the clock to tackle the flames, which were finally brought under control largely down to the use of helicopters.
There were also smaller blazes near Moffat.
Preparing for future wildfires was discussed at Dumfries and Galloway Council’s police, fire and rescue sub committee last week.
Lochar Councillor Linda Dorward asked fire chiefs: “What specific contingency plans do you have in place should wildfires occur again?
“What lessons have you learned from the wildfire in Galloway Forest Park in April this year?
“Have you been working with other emergency services and other stakeholders, such as park rangers to address prevention of future wildfire occurrences?”
Group commander Scott Irving explained that a new strategy was being developed for “enhancing the response to wildfire incidents”.
He also explained there are four different tiers of operation for dealing with such incidents.
Mr Irving said: “We have two stations in the local area currently undergoing training and upskilling to the tier two. Those stations are New Galloway and Langholm.
“We have also implemented recently a new operational assurance system for personnel to allow them to feed in information on operational performance.
“It hasn’t yet been produced any information for the recent fires in the Galloway Forest Park but I’d like to add that, due to the geography of the area, that particular incident did pose some significant challenges.
“But it was largely managed effectively by the use of helicopters because the terrain involved proved challenging for operational personnel.
“That particular fire had a slightly different approach but was managed effectively through good partnership working with Police Scotland colleagues, Galloway Mountain Rescue, and obviously land owners with the provision of helicopters.”
In April, emergency services were also called out to tackle wildfires near the A701 in Annandale.
They were made aware of fires in the Tweedsmuir area and one just north of Moffat, with the road being closed in both directions.
Since then, there were further warnings last month about high risks of wildfires.
