Another heatwave, with temperatures reaching well above 30oC over the last week, saw fire and rescue services across the country repeatedly called into action to deal with numerous blazes.
Examples include firefighters in Tyne and Wear who battled a wildfire for more than 20 hours, and who were praised for saving dozens of homes after another huge grassland fire in Newcastle threatened to spread into a village. Chiefs at Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service (TWFRS) have said that the evening of Wednesday 10 August was busier than Bonfire night with large fires across the region.
In London, new data showed a major increase in grass, rubbish, and open land fire, with firefighters from London Fire Brigade (LFB) tackling 340 blazes in the first week of August, compared to just 42 fires in the same week last year.
This has prompted urgent warnings to the public from fire and rescue services to follow advice and help reduce the chances of wildfires and fires in the open. They also called for the public to remain vigilant and report suspicious activity, as deliberate fire setting was straining services. The Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service (NFRS) reported attending 18 deliberate fires over the weekend of 5-7 August, but that that total had increased to 51 in the following week. They issued a warning that in the current conditions, when firefighters are stretched to the limit, deliberate fires were “potentially putting lives at risk”.
The pressure being put on the services during this heatwave was also highlighted by the Fire Brigades Union (FBU). National Officer for the FBU, Riccardo la Torre, warned that cuts across the UK have left the fire service struggling. Speaking to Sky News, he said: “These are brutal, brutal fires to fight. The temperature that they burn at, the speed at which they spread. The reality is we’ve been left completely unprepared to do that as a fire and rescue service”.
The National Fire Chiefs Council responded saying that the fire service was “well prepared” to respond to a high volume of calls. But in an interview for the Daily Telegraph, Chair Mark Hardingham, warned of an “unprecedented” risk of fires, that the prolonged dry and hot spell is creating, saying “I can’t remember a summer like this, and I’ve been in the fire service 32 years.”