Wildfires in England and Wales have hit a record level, fire chiefs said on Friday, warning that rescue services were battling to keep up with rising risks a day after fires raced from tinder-dry fields to engulf houses on the hottest day of the year.
Britain has not faced anything like the devastation wrought across Spain, France and elsewhere in Europe this year, but as it endures its fifth heatwave of what is expected to be its hottest ever summer, it is dealing with more outbreaks of fire than ever before.
Phil Garrigan, chair of the National Fire Chiefs Council, told Reuters the number of wildfires had now exceeded last year’s total of 1,017.
“We’ve well surpassed the figures from the previous high of 2025,” Garrigan said, without detailing this year’s latest figure.
“We’re only in the middle of August, and the wildfire season seems to extend way into November at this moment in time. So, we’re anticipating this being not just a record-breaking year, but a considerable increase on the number of wildfires previously experienced.”
Britain a ‘tinderbox,’ PM says as trees ‘explode’
Prime Minister Andy Burnham urged the public to take extra care during a visit to the town of Stourbridge in central England, one of several locations where on Thursday homes were destroyed and hundreds of people were evacuated.
“Britain is a tinderbox right now,” he warned. “This is not over by any means. We’ve got 37 fires smoldering around the country.”
One Stourbridge resident described the moment he and his family decided to abandon their home.
“I heard a scream, and all the trees along the railway track were exploding. They weren’t just setting fire, they were exploding. So we just grabbed everything and left,” Paul Nash, whose garden was damaged, told Reuters.
Britain is on track for its hottest summer on record, having recorded five heatwaves that have left around 45 million people living in a drought-hit area and 27 million people facing restrictions on water use, according to government figures.
Temperatures reached 38.1 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit) in London on Thursday, making it the fifth hottest day on record for the United Kingdom, according to the Met Office. The market town of Pershore in central England hit 38 C and was another area where flames tore through homes and fields.
A major motorway was forced to close temporarily and train timetables were also disrupted on Thursday. Officials have yet to say if a train derailment in southern England was connected to the heat.
“We’ve declared 11 major incidents over the course of the last 24 hours,” Garrigan said.
“The demands and the requests for support have probably outstripped the capability of the UK fire and rescue service … so we’ve struggled to give fire and rescue services exactly what they want.”
Burnham said fire services were working alongside the military in some areas and that he would hold a summit with emergency services to make sure they had the resources they needed.
