SPARK NUMBERS: How the Cairngorms wildfire was communicated over a three day window

It takes something for a village to be evacuated.

In July 2026, more than 600 people who live in Nethy Bridge in the Scottish highlands were advised to leave their homes as wildfire threatened their homes.

This was a hugely significant fire which came after weeks of baking temperatures.

The fire and the escalation of the support was a thing of controversy.

But how was the news communicated? I looked at a three day period from July 24.

Breaking it down into basic terms, there is a mixed footprint.

A few weeks back, Police Service Northern Ireland strongly capitalised on TikTok with communications based on video. But this incident saw a different footprint.

There was a mix of video, images and graphic designed imagery.

Helpful, timely information

Footage shot and posted with the snapshot of where things are works.

Like this:

https://www.facebook.com/reel/833655179711872

Here’s the overall stats:

You can see see Scottish Fire & Rescue, Police Scotland Highlands & Islands and The Highland Council by following the highlighted link.

What’s to learn

There will be, I’m sure, after-the-event reviews of the event which will also look at the communications. This will no doubt far more detailed than this blog.

But looking at a snapshot some points emerge.

Much of the fire, police and national park content was datestamped. This builds in obsolescence and prevents the algorithm serving something five days down the track without the consumer understanding this is dated.

X was largely ignored by the public sector. Highland Council posted eight times but on average received seven engagements. Scottish Fire & Rescue never posted to the channel while Cairngorms National Park Authority’s account is dormant. The 50 tweets surfaced on the search term ‘Cairngorms’ focussed on the politics and conspiracy theories.

Facebook was where the engagement was. Content performed strongly on this platform. On average a Scottish Fire & Rescue post received more than 3,600 engagements while the Cairngorms National Park received more than 3,100 likes, comments and shares.

Switching off Facebook comments may have affected reach. Highland Council stopped anyone commenting to their updates and saw their engagements notably lower. It’s possible that a time of crisis people may have wanted to ask a question or tag in a friend or family member. Then again, Highland Council were playing a supporting role in the incident.

Scottish public sector has not embraced TikTok but the public have. The Herald, Sky News, BBC News, Inverness Courier and other journalism sources provided rolling content. Twelve of the top 50 TikToks on July 27 were from news sources. Others were posted from influencers and other news aggregators.

In a crisis, helpful information works. In other times, creative solutions are needed to attract an audience. In a crisis, basic timely information attracts an audience.