West Yorkshire fire chief warns of ‘significant risk’ of wild fires during August heatwave

Dave Walton, deputy chief fire officer at West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service spoke of the “more sustained hot period” in the upcoming days and weeks, raising the risk of further wildfires across the country.

Most of England and parts of Wales are expected to see temperatures above 30 degrees as the Met Office has issued an amber warning for extreme heat.

It comes just a few weeks after mid-July’s record-breaking heatwave with Leeds recording temperatures of almost 40 degrees celsius.

Assistant Chief Officer Walton told BBC Radio 4’s World At One: “I think we’re in for a testing couple of weeks…we’ve had minimal rain, I know areas further south than myself have had literally zero millimetres of rain. So that’s just setting the conditions as we go into this next heatwave and really, really raising the risk quite significantly that further wild fires will happen across the UK.”

He warned of the risks of disposable barbecues, adding: “Just the very heat of a foil tray sat on the ground is enough to start the fire when it’s that dry, it doesn’t even need the spark, which I think is what catches the public out sometimes.”

“Wild fire will literally spread faster than people can run, but also it’s just careless disposal of cigarettes, just driving along a road throwing one out of the window of a car, that can start a wild fire. It’s things like broken glass, literally magnifying the effect of the sun and starting a wild fire. There’s a number of things.”

Tom Bradshaw, NFU (National Farmers’ Union) deputy president said: “I’m afraid it’s already critical. Many, many agricultural sectors are facing the challenges, but those that are growing irrigated crops have been using their irrigation now for several months because it’s been dry right the way since the start of June and even earlier.

“So they’ve been using their irrigation reservoirs and unfortunately those reservoirs are now beginning to run dry, which means that they haven’t got any more water to apply to the crops that are being grown.”