Smith added: “We have seen crews from every fire station attend at some point during the response, as well as the fantastic support we’ve received from our colleagues across the country through National Resilience arrangements.
“It’s been an extremely tough incident, especially with the gruelling hot weather we’ve seen over the last month or so, but we have reached a point where we feel it is safe for us to withdraw all crews and hand the site back over to Natural England.”
Smith, who called it “an unprecedented fire” also praised the strong community response from local residents, farmers and organisations, who rallied around to provide food and support to the crews.
He also thanked partners including the Environment Agency for their “major role in ensuring we had water supplies”.