App helps crews battle surge of summer wildfires

Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service's group manager for operational response, Simon Mason, said it allowed them to plan deployments

Video technology was being used to battle a surge of fires in open spaces during the hot and dry start to the summer.

During the first six months of this year, Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service (NFRS) had been called to 101 incidents that it referred to as "fires in the open". That is more than three times as high as the 29 in the same period last year.

Simon Mason, NFRS group manager for operational response, said call handlers in the control room were using the GoodSAM mobile app to see what resources needed to be deployed.

"It allows our operators to see the incident in front of them through the person's mobile phone," he said.

A straw fire in a field near Great Ellingham that was dealt with by Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service last month

Explaining the process to BBC Radio Norfolk, he said: "We'll send them [members of the public] a text message with a link and that basically turns their camera into a live stream so we can see the incident and what that allows us to do is, very quickly and dynamically, to move additional fire appliances towards that incident if we can see it is escalating or growing quite quickly.

"And on the flip side, if the incident is smaller scale, then obviously we can manage our response to that sort of incident.

"So we're working really hard to manage the risk and put the appropriate resources on the incident as quickly as possible."

Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service officers deal with a field fire near Great Ellingham last month

Mr Mason said the service had seen a "steady increase in incidents across the county" with 15 open fires since Monday.

The spike came amid the driest start to a year in England since 1976, with Anglian Water stating that a hosepipe ban "could still be needed" in the region this summer.

Mr Mason continued: "We're seeing a really broad combination of incidents that are involving careless disposal of things like barbecues, cigarettes or glass bottles, through to campfires and bonfires that people are having.

"Also, some unfortunate incidents relating to farming machinery hitting flints or rocks in the ground and inadvertently causing a fire in a field as they are trying to harvest."