Fire Risk on Exmoor
Exmoor National Park Authority have written to the Chair of the Parish Council with the following advice;
Published: 31 July 2026
Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue are the main lead for wildfire risk management, but we also engage with the public, put out special signage and do quite a lot behind the scenes help to support the fire service with information, planning and training etc. as we are so concerned about the impact of major fires on Exmoor.
We also put out public messaging via our popular social media feeds to encourage everyone to take extra care.
There has been quite a lot of talk about fire beaters on social media. Advice from the Fire Service is very clear that putting these out for public use is not a good idea and instead that people should be encouraged to quickly report a fire with an accurate location. Fire beaters are only useful for very small fires, used with great care, and would need to be immediately to hand, so whilst we totally understand peoples’ desire to do something to help, this is probably not a good approach. They would also cost quite a bit to implement on any useful scale, potentially encourage people to put themselves at risk, and can even make fires worse if used incorrectly.
We will be putting out some extra media shortly, responding to some of the social media conversations.
Access and Recreation Team, Exmoor National Park Authority