As a relentless summer of droughts goes
on, the heat continues to encroach on
those living on the Yorkshire coast.
>> Try and cut the heather in front of the
fire so that it has no fuel to burn.
>> Farmers last night desperately trying to
save their land with 25 square
kilometers ablaze after being starved of
rain, leaving many fearing for their
homes.
>> Everything's here and in the back of the
van. We flee it. Yeah.
>> Michelle, who's lived on land near
Whitby all her life, says her home was
surrounded by smoke to the point she
decided to evacuate her horse.
>> We're praying for rain now to try and
help the firefighters and the farmers
put it out.
>> You seen anything like this before?
>> No, not in my town. No, I don't really
want to experience it again either.
Bertie is one of several animals taken
to this equestrian center 11 miles away
after the owner offered stables for free
to help out.
>> We see all this kind of thing going on
in California and Greece, but you don't
expect to see it in your own country,
let alone on your own doorstep. People
are losing their livelihoods. They're
losing vehicles. Yeah, it's something
needs doing now. In Whitby, the views
have been clouded by drifting smoke as
firefighters and volunteers several
miles away continue to tackle a more
fire that started 16 days ago. That's
prompted well-wishes in the town to
donate supplies to help those trying to
stop the spread.
>> They've got volunteers up there putting
the fire out cuz the government don't
seem interested in getting the army or
anybody involved and uh and they're up
there thirsty and hungry.
Meanwhile, the fire service says talks
are ongoing to bolster its work while
the situation it says is under control.
>> The next steps for us, we will
hopefully, as we said, we'll work
through we'll receive the national
resilience assets, but we also have to
be realistic and as the fire has
continued to uh move across the moors.
We have evacuated smallcale areas.
>> Well, this is as close as we can get to
the fire at the moment, though the smell
here is still thick in the air. But
finally, in the last few minutes, we
have started to feel drops of rain
falling. But it's going to take many
more of them for people's fears here to
be fully extinguished.
Despite the brief showers, the burning
here continues. This ever evolving fire
threatening more land and more
livelihoods as the days go by. Jonathan
Brown, ITV News, Whitby.