“What happens when the second fire starts?” - Baxter challenges Scottish Government over wildfire readiness

Leading a debate on wildfire resilience in the Scottish Parliament, Liberal Democrat MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch Andrew Baxter challenged the SNP government to say whether they would be ready if two major wildfires broke out in Scotland at the same time.

The Scottish Liberal Democrat rural affairs spokesperson warned that the Cairngorms blaze exposed serious weaknesses in the Scottish Government’s ability to respond to wildfires.

Ministers delayed chairing of the meeting of their Resilience Room, convened at times of emergency, by more than a week. When it was eventually held, the SNP government refused an offer of UK military support to help tackle the wildfire.

Mr Baxter demanded action on what he described as the three Rs of wildfire resilience: response, resources and responsibility.

To ensure lessons are learned, Mr Baxter called for the Scottish Government to agree to a cross-party wildfire summit bringing together ministers, SFRS, land managers, farmers and crofters, emergency responders and others with direct experience of tackling wildfires.

He also called on ministers to attend a public meeting being organised by farmers and crofters in the Cairngorms to answer questions directly from those affected by the fire.

Crucially, Mr Baxter argued that Scotland needs a clearer system for identifying and mobilising local wildfire capability, as well as greater certainty over access to aerial firefighting resources during periods of very high and extreme wildfire risk.

Speaking in parliament, Mr Baxter said:

“Fires do not politely wait their turn. Emergencies do not check whether our resources are already committed elsewhere.

“The real resilience test is not whether we can fight one major wildfire. It is what happens when the second one starts.”

Criticising the Scottish Government’s failed action plan, which ministers paraded only months before the fire broke out, he went on to say:

“Responsibility shared between half a dozen organisations must never become responsibility owned by nobody.

“A strategy sitting on a shelf will not extinguish a wildfire. A strategy does not drive a fire engine. A strategy does not fly a helicopter. A strategy does not put another trained firefighter on the ground.

“The test of a strategy is not whether it has been published. It is whether it works when the emergency comes.”

Commenting on the debate, he said:

“The smoke has barely cleared from the Cairngorms. We cannot simply allow attention to move elsewhere and wait for the next fire.

“This should be a watershed moment for how Scotland prepares for wildfire. I want the government, opposition parties, firefighters, farmers, crofters, land managers and communities around the same table, focused on what needs to change.

“There will be another wildfire. Scotland cannot afford to wait until the second fire starts to discover that we were not ready for the first.”