Stakeholder priorities for managing wildfire risk in the Rural-Urban Interface: widening the consultation

Wildfires in Rural-Urban Interface (RUI) are small in size compared to those in Scotland and other UK moorlands, but their increased impacts require significant Fire and Rescue Services resource due to the life and property at risk in surrounding areas. A cross-sector workshop on wildfire in the RUI was held in Greenwich on 10th April 2015. The starting point was the 2011 ‘Swinley Forest’ fire, but discussion extended to other RUI types. Sectors represented included research, Fire Services, emergency planning, spatial planning, forestry, conservation and other land management. Discussion was organised around three phases of response: prevention and preparedness, response, and recovery. Nine priorities for managing fire in the rural-urban interface were agreed at the workshop, three from each phase, and later revised to ten.The aim of this paper was to widen consultation to other types of RUI, and to other sectors. We briefly presented the ten draft priorities. The audience was then invited to suggest refinements or additions and to indicate their priorities. The aim was to provide a mandate from the wildfire community on management priorities for RUI fires, which the England and Wales Wildfire Forum and the Scottish Wildfire Forum can use in discussions with government.