Live-fire military training has sparked hundreds of wildfires across the UK countryside since 2023, with unexploded shells often making it too dangerous to tackle them.Fire crews battling a vast moorland blaze in North Yorkshire this month have been hampered by exploding bombs and tank shells dating back to training on the moors during the Second World War.Figures obtained by the BBC show that of the 439 wildfires on Ministry of Defence (MoD) land between January 2023 and last month, 385 were caused by present-day army manoeuvres themselves.The MoD said it has a robust wildfire policy which monitors risk levels and limits live ammunition use when necessary.But locals near the sites of recent fires told the BBC they felt the MoD needed to do more to prevent them, including completely banning live fire training in the driest months.Wildfires in the countryside can start for many reasons, including discarded cigarettes, unattended campfires and BBQs and deliberate arson, and the scale of them can be made worse by dry, hot conditions and the amount of vegetation on the land.But according to data obtained by the BBC under the Freedom of Information Act, there have been 1,178 wildfires in total linked to present-day MoD training sites since 2020 – with 101 out of 134 wildfires in the first six months of this year caused by military manoeuvres or training.More than 80 of the fires caused by training itself so far this year have been in so-called “Range Da …
