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02
Oct
Why did Grassington firefighters deal with Harrogate car blaze last night?
A fire crew from Grassington was called to put out a car fire in Harrogate yesterday.
The firefighters were deployed to Oakbank, off Ripon Road, at 7.40pm last night.
They used breathing apparatus, a hose reel jet and thermal imaging camera to deal with the blaze, and fire investigation and police officers also attended due to the suspicious nature of the incident.
But why was a crew from the Wharfedale station, which is staffed by on-call volunteers and only has one fire engine, called to a fire in Harrogate – a 45-minute drive away?
Harrogate's Skipton Road station has two nighttime crews.
The Stray Ferret asked North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service what was going on. A spokesperson told us:
We regularly move fire engines around to ensure there is fire cover across the whole service area.
Grassington were on standby in Harrogate at the time of the incident and arrived at the scene within around five minutes of being alerted.
The Harrogate crews were deployed to the ongoing incident at Heck, near Selby.
A Knaresborough crew was in action in Minskip, a Grassington crew came to Harrogate, and Harrogate crews have been tackling a major blaze in Great Heck.
This was a reference to a major blaze at a wood biomass depot near Great Heck, in the far south of the county, which took hold on Tuesday evening. Although largely extinguished, crews were still at the scene today.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation, but it is not currently believed to be suspicious.
Meanwhile, another car caught fire last night, this one on the A6055 at Minskip, near Boroughbridge.
The vehicle was well alight when a fire crew from Knaresborough arrived at the scene. They used breathing apparatus and a hose reel jet to extinguish the fire, and North Yorkshire Police officers helped with traffic management.
The two vehicle fires are not thought to be related.
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