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WildfireIncident WelfareSouth West to the Midlands

Wildfire & Incident Welfare
300 Miles from Cornwall

On-scene feeding for crews working open-ground fires. Fully self-contained — no power, no water, no venue needed. Seasonal standby contracts activate in 60–90 minutes.

Moorland · gorse · cliff · forestry · farmland · multi-agency · 24/7 rotation · net-30 public sector

Off-Grid Kitchen300-Mile RadiusSeasonal Standby24/7 RotationNet-30 Public Sector
Brief Us on Your Operationor call 01209 2062555-Star Food Hygiene · NCASS · Public Liability Insured
Wildfire & Incident Welfare

Welfare where the fire is, not where the road ends

Salt Wind Catering provides wildfire and open-ground incident welfare within 300 road miles of our Cornish kitchen — on-scene feeding for fire & rescue crews, multi-agency responders, local-authority civil contingencies teams and utility incident response. Moorland, gorse, cliff, forestry, standing crop. Wherever the pitch is, we bring the kitchen to it.

Our mobile kitchen is fully self-contained: own gas, own water tanks, own setup. Nothing needs running out to us and nothing needs to exist on-site before we get there. That is the difference that matters on an open-ground fire, because there is rarely a building, a supply or a hard standing anywhere near the incident.

Two ways to engage us. A seasonal standby contract holds capacity across a named risk window — a drought declaration, a heatwave, a dry spell — and activates in 60 to 90 minutes with rates locked before the season starts. Or a cold-start activation on a live incident: on the road within 2 to 4 hours across Cornwall, 3 to 5 hours into Devon, and an agreed window further out.

The area is the same one we publish for film and TV unit catering — 300 road miles from Redruth, taking in the whole South West and South Wales, the South Coast, the Thames Valley and Home Counties, London, and north to Birmingham and Leicester. A dry spell does not stop at the Tamar, and neither do we.

Procurement-side: net-30 accounts already in place with the NHS, Cornwall Council and National Grid. 5-star FSA hygiene rating, NCASS membership, HACCP-aligned procedures and full Public Liability Insurance, with documentation available before deployment.

See also: emergency response catering (storm, flood, highways, rail), blue-light catering Cornwall (police, fire, ambulance), welfare catering (planned contractor and utility welfare).

90min

Standby Activation

24/7

Operations Cover

5★

Hygiene Rating

net-30

Public Sector

Operational Scope

How we are engaged

Held through a season, or called to a live incident — the kit and the crews are the same.

Seasonal standby contract

Capacity held across a named risk window — a dry spell, a drought declaration, a heatwave. Activates in 60 to 90 minutes. Rates locked before the season, not negotiated mid-incident.

Live wildfire activation

Called out to a running incident. On the road in 2 to 4 hours across Cornwall, 3 to 5 into Devon. Hot food and a drinks station up within 60 minutes of reaching the pitch.

Multi-day and cluster response

Extended operations, or several fires across one dry weekend. Rotating cook teams hold 24/7 cover, menu varies daily, dietary lists tracked in writing as agencies change over.

Why an open-ground fire is not a normal job

Four things change when the incident is a wildfire rather than a building, a road or a flood.

The pitch is never a venue

Moorland, gorse, cliff, standing crop, forestry. No building, no mains, no water. We arrive with our own gas, own tanks and own setup and work from wherever you tell us is safe.

Fluids before food

Long shifts in heat and full kit. A continuous cold drinks and water station runs alongside the hot line for as long as we are on-scene, not just at meal times.

The fire moves, so we move

Open-ground fires shift with the wind and the operational plan follows. Our setup packs down and repositions to a new RVP without needing anything reconnected.

Clusters, not single incidents

A dry spell produces fires in batches across a county, not one at a time. A standby contract holds capacity for the window rather than the individual call-out.

Net-30 public-sector procurement in place. Download the capability pack — FSA rating, NCASS, insurance schedules, accounts and service area. No form, no phone call.

How an activation runs

  1. Activation. Phone or email from the lead agency. We confirm the RVP, crew size, anticipated duration and dietary requirements. On a standby contract there is nothing to agree — the terms are already signed.
  2. Mobilisation. Standby contracts roll in 60–90 minutes. Cold start is 2–4 hours across Cornwall, 3–5 hours into Devon. ETA confirmed back to the operational lead before we move.
  3. On-scene setup. We take the pitch you give us and need nothing else — own gas, own water, own footprint. Cold drinks station live on arrival, hot food inside 60 minutes.
  4. Sustained operation. Cook teams rotate to hold 24/7 cover. Menu varies daily. If the incident moves, we pack down and reposition to the new RVP.
  5. Stand-down & invoice. Pack down on order. Single net-30 invoice with full incident accounting attached — meal counts by day, agencies fed, hours on-scene, mileage.

300 road miles from the kitchen

The same service area we run for film and TV unit catering — because it is the same van, the same self-contained kit and the same roads. Based in Redruth, we cover any incident within 300 road miles: the whole South West and South Wales, the South Coast and Sussex, the Thames Valley and Home Counties, London, and as far north as Birmingham and Leicester.

Home ground first — West Penwith and the Lizard, the north coast, Bodmin Moor, the Tamar valley, Dartmoor and Exmoor. Beyond Cornwall and Devon, mobilisation time and travel are agreed per deployment before you commit.

England

Cornwall · Devon · Somerset · Dorset · Bristol & Bath · Wiltshire · Gloucestershire · Hampshire · Isle of Wight · Herefordshire · Worcestershire · Berkshire · West Sussex · Surrey · Oxfordshire · Warwickshire · Middlesex · West Midlands · Greater London · Buckinghamshire · Hertfordshire · Shropshire · Leicestershire · Northamptonshire · Staffordshire · Bedfordshire

Wales

Newport · Cardiff · Monmouthshire · Rhondda Cynon Taf · Vale of Glamorgan · Bridgend · Merthyr Tydfil · Powys · Neath Port Talbot · Swansea & Gower · Carmarthenshire · Ceredigion · Pembrokeshire

Kent west of Maidstone and East Sussex west of Brighton are inside the radius and quoted case by case. Every area above is backed by a measured road distance from TR15 2AE.

Wildfire & Incident Welfare Catering Across Cornwall & Devon

Salt Wind Catering provides wildfire and open-ground incident welfare within 300 road miles of Cornwall — fire & rescue, multi-agency crews, civil contingencies.

Browse all areas we cover

More Catering Services

Storm, flood, highways, rail, multi-agency

Emergency Response Catering

Storm, flood, highways, rail, multi-agency · Rapid response

Police, fire, ambulance, coastguard, RNLI

Blue Light Catering Cornwall

Police, fire, ambulance, coastguard, RNLI · Rapid response

Planned contractor and utility welfare

Welfare Catering Cornwall & Devon

Planned contractor and utility welfare · 24/7 welfare

Wildfire welfare catering FAQs

Can you feed crews at a wildfire with no road access, power or water?
Yes — that is the whole point of the kit. Our mobile kitchen is fully self-contained: own gas, own water tanks, own setup. Open-ground fires burn where there is no building, no mains and often no hard standing, so we work from the nearest safe pitch the incident commander gives us — a field gate, a farm track, a lay-by, a car park at the bottom of the hill. Nothing needs to be run out to us.
How far do you travel to a wildfire?
Any incident within 300 road miles of our Redruth kitchen — the same area we publish for film and TV unit catering, because it is the same van and the same self-contained kit. That covers the whole South West and South Wales, the South Coast and Sussex, Berkshire, Surrey, London, the Thames Valley and Home Counties, and as far north as Birmingham and Leicester. Kent west of Maidstone and East Sussex west of Brighton are inside the line and quoted case by case.
How quickly can you be on-scene?
From a cold start: 2 to 4 hours within Cornwall, 3 to 5 hours into Devon. Further out we agree the window with you before you commit rather than publish a number we cannot hold — a long haul is a drive, and we will not pretend otherwise. On an open-ground fire a cold start is usually the second or third operational period anyway. If you need welfare inside the first hour, that is what a standby contract is for: held capacity activates in 60 to 90 minutes wherever it is held.
Can you hold standby capacity through the wildfire season?
Yes. For a named seasonal risk window we hold capacity against an agreed activation fee, and mobilise within 60 to 90 minutes of the call. Activation cost and per-hour-on-scene rates are locked at contract stage, so there is no negotiation while an incident is running. This is the arrangement that actually fits wildfire — the fires come in clusters over a dry spell, not one at a time.
What does a crew coming off a fire line actually need?
Fluids first. A continuous cold drinks and water station, then hot food that can be eaten fast and standing up in kit — stews, curries, pasta bakes, hot pies, bacon and sausage baps — plus packed cold options for crews staying out on the line. On a multi-day incident we vary the menu daily so the same plate is not served twice in a row.
Have you catered a wildfire before?
Not a wildfire specifically. We have run on-scene welfare for storm response, cliff-top operations, exposed moorland, flood-isolated sites and overnight standbys — the same kit, the same cook teams, the same off-grid setup, in the same conditions. We would rather tell you that straight than claim an incident we have not worked.
See our full welfare & emergency catering hub

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Behind the pass

Fire, food, and what we’re cooking next.

Seasonal menus, off-menu specials, and early-bird pricing — one short email a month.

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