A West Yorkshire fire chief is urging the country to take action as figures released recently show that crews in England dealt with nearly 25,000 wildfires in summer last year – the highest in at least a decade.
Across the country there were almost four times the number of fires in 2022 compared to summer 2021 and some services tackled more than 50 wildfires a day at the peak of the heatwaves, which reached a record-breaking 40C.
Dave Walton, deputy chief fire officer for West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service (WYFRS), said: “The predictions are we will get heatwaves like we saw last summer much more regularly, even as much as every three years, due to climate change. This is very different position compared to a one-off event nearly 50 years ago, and we need to see what happened last year as a wake-up call.
“We need to learn how we get prepared as a country for this and how we rethink the resources we have, or need, going forward. If we can make sure we are ready for this increase in wildfires then homes, property and ultimately people’s lives are safer. Now is the time for us to collectively take action.”
WYFRS attended more than four times the number of wildfires last year compared to 2021. At least 24,316 wildfires were recorded by fire services in England from June to August, according to data obtained by the PA news agency through freedom of information requests.
More than 800 wildfires were recorded across England on July 19, the day temperatures rose above 40C in the UK for the first time and there were further spikes in wildfires in August, with more than 600 recorded each day from August 11 to 14 as temperatures reached the mid-30s.
Overall there were more than 10,000 wildfire incidents across England in both July and August. A sequence of heatwaves led to England experiencing the driest July since 1935 and the joint warmest summer on record.
Fire services that saw high spikes in daily wildfires include West Yorkshire, which recorded 68 on July 18 and 65 on July 19.
DCFO Walton said: “Once a wildfire starts, with the best will in world, it’s very difficult to stop and will take hold faster than people can run. In hot weather the fields, crops and grasslands are tinderbox dry and will catch fire with very little encouragement. A hot barbecue on the ground can start a fire on its own, as can a carelessly thrown cigarette or broken glass.
“We have specialist equipment for fighting wildfires and over the hot summer months we increase our resource in terms of 999 control room staff and crewing fire engines.
“I have been in the fire service for 37 years and there are always changes to deal with. In the 80s and 90s there were far more house fires, and now this is at an all-time low due to the changes made by society together. We can do this again, so we can protect our land, homes and most importantly people. While we are seeing this first-hand as firefighters, this is not about us as a service, it is about taking steps to ensure we all change our behaviour to protect everyone in our community.”
