Northumberland Fire and Rescue hosts major multi-agency wildfire training exercise

The exercise was delivered with the Northumbria Local Resilience Forum, Northumbria Police, HM Coastguard, Northumberland County Council, Gateshead Council, Forestry England, the Environment Agency, British Red Cross, North East Ambulance Service, Mountain Rescue Teams and others.

The initiative underscored a shared commitment to safeguarding communities through coordinated emergency response.

A highlight of the event was the participation of leading wildfire experts from the United States, Evrim Bunn, Anthony Schulz and Deputy Chief Brian Martin from the Los Angeles County Fire Department

These internationally recognised specialists shared valuable insight from their frontline experience managing large-scale wildfires and evacuations.

Rob Stacey, Wildfire Team Leader at Northumberland Fire and Rescue Service, said: “This exercise has been a fantastic opportunity to bring partners together and test how we would respond to significant wildfire incidents in our communities.

"Learning from international colleagues who have dealt with these situations on a much larger scale has been invaluable, and it gives us greater confidence that we are continually improving our ability to protect the public.

"Collaboration like this is essential as we prepare for increasingly complex incidents in the future.”

Andrea Fryer, Northumbria Local Resilience Forum Manager added “The two-day exercise provided a fantastic opportunity to test Northumbria Resilience Forum’s ability to respond to large-scale wildfire incidents within a multi-agency environment, where impacts can be far-reaching across communities, the economy, and the environment.

"It demonstrates our collective capability to deliver a safe, coordinated, and effective response to incidents of this nature.”