While the risk of wildfires is on the rise, the number of firefighters has been in decline.
Steve Wright, general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, which represents firefighters, said more than a fifth of firefighter and control room posts across the UK – some 12,000 jobs – had been cut since 2010, which left crews dangerously overstretched over the summer.
“We had firefighters from London being mobilised to Yorkshire, firefighters from Merseyside being mobilised to Dorset,” he said. “The effect, when you have wildfires happening at the same time across the UK, is there’s just not enough firefighters on the ground to be able to deal with them.”
