Police declare ‘major incident’ as wind change increases Cairngorms wildfire risk
A major incident has been declared by Police Scotland as emergency services continue to tackle a wildfire which has been burning in the Cairngorms National Park for 10 days.
The force said it followed “a significant change in weather conditions” which has increased the risk of fire spreading towards the village of Nethy Bridge.
All Nethy Bridge residents have been evacuated as a precaution to allow emergency services to continue their response.
But a local resident told the BBC the wildfire should have been declared a major incident sooner and the lack of communication from authorities had been “pretty poor”.
The BBC has contacted the Scottish government and Police Scotland for comment.
First Minister John Swinney, who held a meeting of the Scottish government’s resilience room early on Saturday, said additional police resources were being deployed to assist with the Nethy Bridge evacuation.
He urged people to “respect the exclusion zone that’s been put in place”, adding that the change in weather conditions illustrated “the scale and difficulty of the situation that we are managing”.
Smoke from the wildfire can now be seen 59 miles away in Aberdeen following a change in wind direction.
Supt Judy Hill said weather conditions “experienced within the Cairngorms over the last 24 hours have added further complexities to this situation”.
“With evidence suggesting the fire is spreading towards Nethy Bridge, the decision has been taken to declare a major incident and evacuate residents as a precaution.”
She said additional police resources were being deployed to help contact those who need to leave their properties.