Chief calls for long-term plan to tackle wildfires

South Yorkshire's chief fire officer has called on the government to create a long-term strategy to tackle wildfires in the UK.

Between June and August, South Yorkshire experienced 53 wildfires, as five official heatwaves made it the hottest summer on record.

Chris Kirby, of South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service (SYFRS), called for a strategy that "reflects the changing nature of emergencies facing the UK".

The government-funded UK Wildfire Conference will be held in Leeds in November, to discuss how prepared the nation is to prevent and respond to wildfires.

This summer, the number of emergency 999 calls was up 84% and the number of incidents increased by 39% compared to averages of the previous three summers, according to SYFRS.

Kirby said the strategy must include "sustained investment in firefighters, specialist wildfire capabilities, training, equipment and national resilience improvements".

Wildfires were no longer confined to remote rural areas, Kirby said, and "as fires move from open land into urban and suburban communities, they are threatening homes, businesses and critical infrastructure".

"When we are responding to wildfires, they can go on for days, if not weeks, and all of a sudden it puts a real strain on the fire and rescue service," Kirby said.

"We need to have a long, careful look at the whole arrangement of how we are prepared for these kind of incidents across the fire and rescue services and it's a conversation that I'm really pleased that government are willing to have."

Unlike other nations, the UK does not have a fire and rescue service asset that allows services to deploy water from an aircraft in the event of a large wildfire.

Kirby said that local contractual arrangements had allowed some services to "receive some well-needed aerial firefighting capability".

"But really we need to tighten up on that arrangement and I'm sure that that's something that will be discussed at length at the upcoming wildfire summit that the government have promised to host."

Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North