CCC Chair Warns Lives Will Be Lost as UK Wildfires Hit Record — SkimNews
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- Baroness Brown, chairwoman of the Climate Change Committee, told BBC File on 4 Investigates that lives "will be lost" and the UK is "not prepared for the changing climate," saying warnings dating back to 2012 went unheeded.
- National Fire Chiefs Council figures seen by File on 4 show 2026 set a new all-time high with 1,350 wildfires in England and Wales, up by more than 300 on 2025 and more than 1,000 on 2024; records were also broken in 2022 and 2025.
- Wildfire damage this year included one death in Gloucestershire, the destruction of 19 homes in Stourbridge near Birmingham, and evacuations in the Cairngorms.
- Steve Wright, general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, said more than 12,000 firefighter and control room posts — over a fifth of the workforce — have been cut since 2010, leaving crews "dangerously overstretched" and forcing cross-region mobilisations.
- The UK government said it is investing nearly £100m (£97m) to fund six specialist firefighting teams and dedicated off-road vehicles, described as the biggest upgrade to national resilience capabilities in 20 years.
- Phil Garrigan, chairman of the National Fire Chiefs Council, welcomed the £97m but warned more money is needed for aerial firefighting capability, saying otherwise 2027 and 2028 risk repeating the 50-plus homes lost in 2026.
- The prime minister said the government will hold a summit with fire and rescue services and other organisations to ensure they have the right equipment and resources.
Why it matters: With wildfire records broken in three of the past five years and firefighter ranks thinned by 12,000+ posts since 2010, the £97m the government touts as a 20-year resilience upgrade is already being called insufficient by the National Fire Chiefs Council — meaning the gap between the CCC's repeated warnings (first issued in 2012) and operational capacity on the ground remains material going into the next fire season.
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