By stewartb
Something for the unhappy residents of Nethy Bridge to reflect upon?
From The National (July 26): ‘UK fails to provide wildfire water‑bombing support for Cairngorms fire’. ‘
‘John Swinney said the Scottish Government had requested aerial support to drop water on the fire but was told that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) did not have such equipment. (my emphasis)
And: ‘The First Minister said: “The Scottish Government requested military assistance, in the form of aerial support to drop water on the fire, from the Ministry of Defence to supplement existing aerial resources that are in place. “We have received a formal response advising that the UK Government are not in a position to agree to this request, given that the Ministry of Defence does not possess aerial firefighting assets stationed within the UK.
“The offer of other resources is welcome but SFRS has confirmed they have the other resources they need.”
Meanwhile in an independent nation-state nearby and of similar size to Scotland. From The Irish Times (July 23): ‘Slievenamon wildfire enters fourth day as firefighters continue to battle blaze – Co Tipperary fire extended into a Coillte forest on Tuesday and spread significantly on Wednesday’. (https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2026/07/23/firefighters-battle-slievenamon-wildfire-on-fourth-day-of-blaze/ )
‘According to Tipperary County Council, while “conditions have stabilised and improved this morning after extensive ground and aerial firefighting efforts, fire services continue to monitor the area closely”. The fire may get worse as temperatures rise during the day.
‘Coillte personnel remain at the scene on Thursday, with crews from Tipperary Fire and Rescue Service and the Air Corps. Two helicopters are supporting operations from the air.’ (The Air Corps is Ireland’s airborne defence force.)
From the Irish Independent (July 20): ‘Kerry fire crews and Air Corps continue to battle ‘hazardous hotspots’ following Killarney Park Blaze’.
‘Kerry fire crews, the Irish Air Corps Helicopters and the dedicated staff of the National Park and Wildlife Service along with the park firefighters have spent six days tackling a fire that has threatened to spread out of control in Killarney National Park due to the current dry conditions.’
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The 'Unstoppable' Talking-up Scotland 
Thanks for this contextual information, regarding the equipment of the UK armed forces.
BBC ‘Scotland’, some unionist politicians, most of the ‘Scottish’ newspapers, and other UK media, probably via the Press Association have given the Cairngorms wildfire extensive coverage, but as well as than reporting on tackling the fire they have used vox pops from two people in the Nethy Bridge area to ‘slam’ the Scottish Government and Scottish Fire and Rescue. The chair of the local community council is a retired photographer who worked for the P&J in Aberdeen and it is likely that he has used contacts in the media to get his political point across. BBC ‘Scotland’, of course was happy to oblige.
When the wind direction changed suddenly, as happens in mountainous areas and some residential properties were threatened and were advised to evacuate, the theme was, ‘Why were we not given more notice?’ How much notice can be given of unpredictable events?
The fire service responded, the weather changed and the threat lessened and people returned to their homes, no one was injured or killed.
For the media, this is not just about a wildfire, but about attacking the Scottish Government and by extension independence. By suggesting the fire service was not coping is implying Scotland cannot cope.
Surprisingly, over a week ago Scotland on Sunday – on an inside page – had a constructive piece by the CEO of Scottish landed estates on the need for cooperation amongst all parties to deal with threats like this which are a consequence of climate change. The article recognised the responsibilities of private organisations like his in developing solutions.
The growing probability of wildfires in Scotland is something that has to be dealt with, for the safety of local communities and, more widely, for air quality. However, there needs to be a sense of perspective and scale as we see the enormousness of fires in France and Spain and, in previous times, in the United States and Australia.
Scotland is adversely served by its media, especially BBC ‘Scotland’.
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