Fiona Callow
BBC News, Yorkshire
Richard Howard
North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service confirmed the fire had spread overnight
A fertiliser mine in the North York Moors National Park has been largely evacuated due to safety concerns as efforts continue to contain an ongoing moorland fire.
Emergency services have been battling the blaze on Langdale Moor, near the ballistic missile early warning base at RAF Fylingdales, since Monday 11 August.
Woodsmith Mine operator Anglo-American announced that all personnel apart from a remaining skeleton crew had been removed from the site as a “precautionary measure”.
Heavy smoke has closed sections of surrounding roads including the A171 Robin Hoods Bay turn to Cloughton, and the B1416 between Dean Hall Brow and the A171, while North York Moors National Park has warned people to avoid the area “at all costs”.
North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service confirmed the fire had spread overnight at Fylingdales Moor, saying: “We would ask people affected by smoke to keep doors and windows closed.”
Labour MP for Scarborough and Whitby Alison Hume said the blaze was “a very difficult fire to fight”, and thanked emergency services and volunteers for their ongoing efforts.
“This fire could go on for weeks or months because when the fire gets into the peat it burns along under the surface so they’re damping it down on the surface but you don’t know when it’s going to pop up again,” she said.
“That’s what’s happened overnight I think – it’s flared up.”
Richard Howard
The fire over Fylingdales, taken from Stainsacre
North Yorkshire Moors Railway confirmed all its steam services would remain paused “for the time being” to avoid putting additional pressure on emergency services.
The diesel fleet is running on the planned timetable, it said.