{"id":90698,"date":"2026-07-26T16:11:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T16:11:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/90698\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T16:11:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T16:11:22","slug":"cairngorms-wildfire-uk-government-offers-chinook-helicopters-and-military-personnel-to-support-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/90698\/","title":{"rendered":"Cairngorms wildfire: UK Government offers Chinook helicopters and military personnel to support response"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Chinook helicopters and military personnel are ready to support efforts to tackle the Cairngorms wildfire if required, the UK Government has announced.<\/p>\n

The offer follows a request for assistance made by the Scottish Government on Saturday and calls for help from local officials as emergency services continued efforts to bring the major wildfire under control.<\/p>\n

\"The\"TheThe Cairngorms wildfire viewed late last night from Croftjames. Picture: Natalie Hollingworth.<\/p>\n

Secretary of State for Scotland Douglas Alexander has been liaising with the Ministry of Defence and Defence Secretary Wes Streeting over what resources could be made available.<\/p>\n

The UK Government says it is ready to deploy Chinook helicopters to provide logistical support and heavy-lift capacity, alongside enhanced liaison support to strengthen the tactical response.<\/p>\n

Personnel from UK standby battalions are also available.<\/p>\n

No military deployment has yet been announced, with the resources available should the Scottish Government request their use.<\/p>\n

The offer comes in addition to existing arrangements for mutual aid from fire and rescue services based in England and support available through the national resilience system.<\/p>\n

\"A\"AA firefighter douses flames during the mass operation to extinguish the Cairngorm wildfire. Picture: Cairngorm National Park.<\/p>\n

The Scottish Government confirmed on Saturday that it had approached Westminster seeking military assistance, specifically aerial support to supplement resources already being used against the fire.<\/p>\n

Mr Alexander said: \u201cThe last 12 days have been extremely challenging for the teams on the ground tackling the wildfire and for those who live and have livelihoods in the area. Scottish Fire and Rescue services and the local community have committed exceptional efforts to trying to get the fire under control and they deserve a wealth of praise and thanks.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince receiving the request for assistance from the Scottish Government, I have worked at speed with the Defence Secretary to establish the resources we can deploy to support the efforts in the Cairngorms.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The\"TheThe Chinook is an extremely capable and highly versatile helicopter.<\/p>\n

Defence Secretary Wes Streeting said the Armed Forces were ready to respond should their assistance be required.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cMy thoughts are with those who have been affected by the terrible wildfires in the Cairngorms and I pay tribute to the brave emergency services personnel who have been working tirelessly to tackle the blaze.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur Armed Forces are always ready and able to respond to serious situations and Chinook helicopters can be available to provide heavy-lifting capacity, which may be needed given the landscape, and we have UK standby battalion personnel ready to deploy to provide additional numbers on the ground to help bring the wildfire under control.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Ministry of Defence is ready to support in any way we can and we are working closely with teams on the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do you want to respond to this article? If so, click here<\/a> to submit your thoughts and they may be published in print. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chinook helicopters and military personnel are ready to support efforts to tackle the Cairngorms wildfire if required, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90699,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[5859,346,5,6,5860],"class_list":["post-90698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uk","tag-free","tag-latest-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-update-me"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116987159160976799","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}