By 6 July, the heatwave, which had lasted just over two weeks, was the longest in the United Kingdom since July 2013. The drought conditions were exacerbated by May 2018 being the warmest since 2008 and the driest since 2011. It was especially dry in parts of Northern England, where rainfall was the lowest. Member of Parliament Jonathan Reynolds, Shadow Economic Secretary to the Treasury, said ministers would “need to look seriously at our capacity to deal with these kinds of fires in future, including military capacity we might have lost in recent years”. Fire first broke out on Saddleworth Moor, between Sheffield and Manchester, on 24 June 2018, but that fire was extinguished later that same day. But the next day, pockets of the fire re-ignited, perhaps from burning of peat which had dried out deep; this began to burn out of control from 26 June, and a major incident was declared that day. By 27 June, the moorland fire had grown to cover over and remained uncontained. Rapidly changing wind speed and direction helped the fire to spread quickly across the dry moorland and complicated efforts to fight the fire, which split into several fronts moving in different directions. Dry peat is also making fighting the fire difficult, as the fire can continue to smoulder underground after being extinguished at the surface, re-igniting the surface later. After a major incident was declared on 26 June and with the fire rapidly approaching populated areas, around 150 people were evacuated from 50 homes close to the advancing fire, including 34 homes on Calico Crescent in Carrbrook, Stalybridge; it is thought to be the first time a wildfire has forced such an evacuation to take place in the United Kingdom. In the House of Commons on 26 June, Prime Minister Theresa May told MPs that the government was keeping the situation on Saddleworth Moor under "constant review" following the declaration of a major incident in response to the wildfires. Speaking at the scene of the fire on 27 June, Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham said that a summertime fire on Saddleworth Moor "isn't unusual", but that the size and scale of this fire "is unlike anything we've seen before". Later that afternoon, assistant chief fire officer of the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service Dave Keelan formally requested military assistance in tackling the fire, including the provision of high-pressure water lines and transportation of firefighters towards front lines, plus Boeing Chinook army helicopters to transport water pumps up the mountain. The fire was near to a densely populated area of northern England.