If the undocumented BB_FETCH_PREMIRRORONLY is not set in the local.conf file, and working with a clean downloads area, fetches will fail and halting builds.
Fixed in http://git.pokylinux.org/cgit.cgi/poky/commit/?id=29ed2c6e9a0c3cc57c5bbaf3c53e1cff8586c51c
This is no longer an issue