Ministers pledge to ‘learn lessons’ at Scottish wildfires summit

Ministers have pledged to look at what lessons could be learned when tackling wildfires ahead of a special summit.

The Scottish Government is hosting a special summit which will consider how best to respond to the blazes.

It comes in the wake of Scotland suffering the largest wildfires in living memory, with 13 wildfire alerts issued this year alone and firefights attending more than 200 such blazes.

The event, which is taking place in the Cairngorms National Park on Tuesday, will involve leading figures from the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS), along with nature body NatureScotland and Scottish Land and Estates, as well as various land managers and environmental organisations.

In addition to the summit, which will be jointly chaired by agriculture minister Jim Fairlie and community safety minister Siobhian Brown, a roundtable event will take place with MSPs after Holyrood returns from the October recess.

Mr Fairlie said there had been an “astonishing effort across so many sites to tackle the wildfires we saw this year”.

Adding that the government is grateful to all those involved in this effort, the minister said the summit “is a chance for us to look at what worked, and what lessons we need to learn from what happened”.

Ms Brown meanwhile said that in the aftermath of the blazes the Scottish Government had “engaged closely” with SFRS, local communities and others on “building resilience to wildfires”.

Ministers “continue to support the full implementation of the SFRS wildfire strategy”, she said, adding this would see the roll-out this year of new equipment, vehicles and personal protective equipment.

SFRS director of prevention Assistant Chief Officer Jon Henderson stated: “This year Scotland has faced an unprecedented scale of wildfire risk, and our crews have attended more than 200 wildfires across the country.

“Wildfires can employ a significant amount of our resources, they also have the potential to burn for days and devastate vast areas of land and wildlife, threatening the welfare of nearby communities.”

He said firefighters would “continue to work closely with our partners, landowners and communities in both our response and importantly to help prevent wildfires”, with Mr Henderson stressing that the SFRS welcomes “the opportunity to participate in this summit”.

Colin McLean, head of land management at the Cairngorms National Park Authority, also welcomed the event, saying it “provides an opportunity for critical conversations to take place on wildfire mitigation and management”.

Mr McLean said the national park authority was “putting in place clear, practical measures to reduce the risk of wildfire”, and added: “Coming together at events like this will help strengthen that work and ensure we are as prepared and resilient as possible.”