Summer is here, and while many of us are getting out and enjoying the warm weather, firefighters have been feeling the pressure from huge increases in wildfires.
And those who were hoping that the downpours of Monday night much of the country saw would provide a respite were disappointed as lightning set fire to many homes.
Stories of wildfires that feel like they’d be more at home in New South Wales than Old North West Wales have been filling the news in the last week, as the UK’s heatwave shows little signs of abating. A fire in a North Wales forest broke out twice on Sunday, while firefighters in other parts of the region dealt with several gorse fires, including one in a holiday park that broke out five times between Sunday afternoon and Monday morning.
Surrey firefighters issued a warning during the weekend for people to be extra careful with matches, and discarded cigarettes, after they faced at least 40 wildfires within 48 hours. Meanwhile, the London Fire Brigade, who are always quick on a stat, revealed that wild and grass fires have increased by seven times as compared to last year. The capital has averaged 29 grass fires from July 1 to 21, with a high of 52 reported grass fires on the 15th July.
The largest fire that LFB dealt with was in Mitcham, South London, where an area the size of four football pitches was destroyed. You can see a video of firefighters tackling the huge blaze here:
And it’s not just England and Wales, of course. A number of fires in Scotland were also reported, including a three-acre blaze in Perthshire, while another fire broke out on the famous Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh, with firefighters working overnight to control the blaze.
Lightning
Perhaps hoping for a respite with wet weather that arrived in the UK during Monday night, firefighters across the country were faced with a series of fires caused by lightning storms. Fires caused by lightning strikes were reported in Wiltshire, Kent, and Lincolnshire — where up to 50 firefighters tackled a fire at a farm after gas bottles were ignited by storms.
The weather and news has certainly been unusual, but as far as we could find, no one has been seriously injured in any of the fires caused by the hot weather of recent weeks. When compared to the wildfires of California in 2007, where around 500,000 acres of land were burned and 14 people tragically killed, you get an idea of how relatively small the UK’s risk from wildfires is.
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Wildfire is something which happens in most parts. I don’t think it happens only for a season. It’s something which can occur any moment.
Dry conditions help it spread, so theoretically it can happen in winter too if it’s been dry. It just tends to be dryer in the summer.