Northamptonshire fire chief says heatwave is 'a glimpse into the future'

Darren Dovey said the number of wildfires would increase due to climate change

A chief fire officer said the heatwave was "a glimpse into the future" with more fires caused by extreme heat.

The UK saw record high temperatures on Tuesday and 15 fire services declared a state of emergency due to the number of blazes they were attending.

Northamptonshire's fire chief Darren Dovey said climate change was "going to change the type of incidents we go to".

Cabinet Office minister Kit Malthouse said services were "undoubtedly stretched but coped magnificently".

Tuesday saw a record UK temperature of 40.3C (104.5F) in Coningsby, Lincolnshire, with many areas of eastern England reaching similar temperatures.

Six fire engines were called the incident in Northampton on Monday

Mr Dovey said although Northamptonshire did not declare a major incident, it was "up to six times busier than normal".

"The surrounding counties were in the same position to us, some were in a worse position," he said.

Climate change meant "there's going to be more wildfires, more water-related incidents, with people swimming where they shouldn't be", he added.

"If this is going to be a normal type of summer, how do we shape the organisation right to deal with these? How do we get bigger, quicker to deal with those events?"

He said services would need to look at using more on-call and part-time firefighters and get vehicles which can easily cross fields to wildfires.

• Busiest day since WW2 for London firefighters

• Fire service stands down major incident

• Homes destroyed and wildlife killed as fires spread

Mr Dovey said as well as heatwaves in the summer, the service would have to tackle more flooding in the winter due to climate change.

He said: "The last few days have given us a glimpse into the future over the next five to 10 years, because this is likely to become the norm.

"Lots of services are based on what happened 20 years ago and we need to look forward to 2030."

Conservative minister Kit Malthouse told MPs the resilience plans put in place by the government worked

Cabinet Office minister Mr Malthouse warned the summer was likely to bring further hot weather and the risk of wildfire remained elevated.

"That is why we are treating this heatwave as an exacting test of our national resilience and contingency planning," he said.

He told MPs: "By and large the system worked, the plans that we had in place worked well."

Mr Malthouse said the capacity in fire services "flexed brilliantly and most of the country got through it in good shape".

Although he reconfirmed the government commitment for the UK to be net zero by 2050, he added "the impacts of climate change are with us now".

Firefighter Jamie Newell said fire services were stretched

Jamie Newell, from the eastern region Fire Brigades Union (FBU), said the week had "been a strain for everyone".

He said some services were "running very close to a [staffing] level where the incidents we attend aren't safe" and called for more firefighters to be recruited.

Heatwaves have become more frequent, more intense and last longer because of human-induced climate change.

The world has already warmed by about 1.1C (1.9F) since the industrial era began and temperatures will keep rising unless governments around the world make steep cuts to emissions.