'We were sitting ducks' - Campsite owners relive horrifying Yorkshire wildfire

Caroline and Andrew Butterfield watched helplessly as flames moved at speed across the moors towards their family caravan site business and their home.

Teenage son William was fighting the fires along with dad Andrew, farmers and fire crews, while daughter Amelia evacuated the campsite. Caroline hurriedly packed a bag and rounded up the family pets.

They genuinely didn’t know what, if anything they would return to.

Miraculously as flames licked the woodland at the bottom of Grouse Hill Caravan site they were held there.

The campsite re-opened in September but not every customer came back.

“We lost a lot of customers at the end of last year”, says Caroline, “probably about 30 seasonal customers as soon as the road was opened, they went then.

“They still had a month and a half left of the season but they just went. Some didn’t even come and say they were going, they just packed up and went.

“Before the fire, when they were here they said they had never been so relaxed and loved it - and they cleared off. People think we are stupid. We have had to work hard to get those pitches refilled.”

Having seen current wildfires, it prompts the Butterfields to relive those terrifying days last August, and it reignites anger.

The response to fires in Scotland, Devon and Suffolk were faster and while there is nothing of their surrounding landscape left to burn, there are fears over it happening again.

Mrs Butterfield said: “We are angry. We were left from June until August. If this happens again you do think ‘what the hell is going to happen’.

"I do feel we are protected at the moment because there is nothing left to burn, but in future we won’t be and we are still sat in fear. We were sitting ducks for months.”

Campers still ask if they can have open fires on the site, fire pits and disposable barbecues.

Whilst there are moves to stop major supermarkets selling them, the message is not filtering through to smaller outlets, even like Caroline’s own campsite shop.

The physical landscape is still scarred, charred, dusty and ashen.

Any snippets of regrowth and colour have now gone brown because there is no water on the ground.

But there are signs of life out there, she added.

“We have butterflies, green hairstreaks. We had a buzzard flying over before the fire and I have seen it again.

"We haven’t had red kites for years and have seen them too.”