One year after wildfires tore through London, experts are raising the alarm about how ‘unprepared’ the UK is to handle heatwaves.
This week, a heat wave that covered Europe, North America, and Asia caused temperatures to soar to unprecedented heights.
Since the heat has turned the woodlands into tinderboxes, firefighters in Greece and the Canary Islands of Spain have been battling wildfires that have destroyed animals and driven hundreds of people from their homes.
Though the UK has avoided the extreme heat that its European counterparts are experiencing, concerns about the country’s readiness for the heat are growing.
Seeing fire rip through countries has brought back memories of the devastating wildfire this time last year in Wennington, a village about 15 miles from central London, that destroyed 16 homes.
But according to the Fire Brigades Union (FBU), 23 fire engines a day have not been available in London so far this month – or about one in six of the capital’s 142 engines.
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A peak of 28 fire engines was unavailable on July 16, the union claimed. The London Fire Brigade’s (LFB) only fireboat, essential for river rescue and fighting fires, has been unavailable for 13 shifts.
The lack of vehicles has also been down to a lack of staff, too, data obtained by the FBU claimed. Its figures include appliances ‘off the run’ – unavailable – because of a lack of firefighters.
Around one in five firefighter jobs – about 1,100 since 2010 – have been cut even as extreme weather increasingly becomes the norm. This is ‘putting lives and homes at risk’, FBU general secretary Mark Wrack said.
‘One year on from the devastation of last summer’s wildfires, cuts are still leaving the fire service unprepared,’ he said.
‘Londoners should be furious that in the capital city of one of the richest countries in the world, firefighter numbers have been cut so badly that more than 20 fire engines are sitting idle every day.
‘This is a disaster waiting to happen again.’
A major incident review of the LFB detailed how a shortage of staff and fire appliances hampered the brigade’s response to the July 2022 wildfires.
The LFB insisted yesterday that officials are ‘far better prepared’ for a punishing heatwave this year.
Dom Ellis, the LFB’s Assistant Commissioner, said more than 100 new officers have been recruited and all teams have been given specialist wildfire-busting training.
‘We hope in the next year to 18 months we’ll be as near to full establishment as we can get,’ he told The Evening Standard.
He added: ‘We’re bringing forward additional training to get additional recruits through the door so that we can have all of our, or as many of our appliances, on the run as possible.’
Though, experts say that heatwaves and the devastation they bring with them – wildfires, floods and health risks – will soon become a staple of the summer.
Heatwaves aren’t just an especially toasty afternoon, the Met Office says, they’re hot spells of at least three days that break the daily maximum temperatures threshold.
Europe’s heatwaves – one named Cerberus after the three-headed dog that guards the gates of the underworld and the other its raggedy ferryman, Charon – have sent thermometers up to as high as the mid-40s for days.
European governments had plenty of time to prepare. In 2003, more than 70,000 people died due to an exceptionally hot summer in Europe.
Last year, the heat left 61,000 dead, according to a report published last week that researchers admit is a conservative estimate at best.
Given Britain’s reputation when it comes to the weather – think rain, rain and more rain – heat is something of a ‘new challenge’ for the country, Dr Candice Howarth, the head of Local Climate Action and lead of Heat Risk Resilience Hub at the LSE Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, said.
‘Extreme heat is a relatively new challenge for the UK, and currently, there is insufficient research, policy, and action to ensure communities, businesses and infrastructure are prepared for, and can adequately respond to this impact of climate change,’ she told Metro.co.uk.
‘The UK will become more exposed to heatwaves in future and the hot summers we are seeing today will become more frequent and more intense.’
Dr Friederike Otto, a senior lecturer in climate science at the Grantham Institute – Climate Change and the Environment at Imperial College London, has a few ideas of what needs to be done.
‘In the UK, there are a wide range of challenges. Our cities and homes are not built to deal with extreme heat,’ she said, adding they need to have ‘resilience’ in mind.
More long-term planning is needed, Dr Otto said, as costly and complicated as it can be. Think refitting homes and offices so they aren’t sponges for heat, planting more trees and parks and ensuring that health services are prepared.
‘It should be an absolute no-brainer to do this,’ Dr Otto says.
Last year’s wildfire was a brutal test of how well the UK can cope with the warmth, while Europe’s blistering heat is a reminder of the challenges to come.
‘As well as direct deaths from heatstroke, heatwaves are dangerous for the elderly because extreme heat compromises the body’s ability to deal with existing health problems,’ Dr Otto said.
‘Increased admissions to hospitals due to heatwaves will likely further strain the NHS which is already under immense pressure.’
In 2022, 3,271 excess deaths were recorded during heat periods across England and Wales, according to official figures.
This was an average of 82 excess deaths per day. About 638 more deaths than normal were recorded in England on July 19, the hottest day of that year which saw 40.3°C recorded in Coningsby, Lincolnshire.
Dr Howarth said while it is ‘encouraging’ to see London’s fire brigade introduce specialist wildfire training, the burden mustn’t fall on local services alone.
Government officials need to learn from Europe and establish a ‘culture of heat’, better educating people on how to ‘prepare and respond’.
‘If the government fails to show more leadership on preparing for these extreme heat events, then we are likely to see a rise in heat-related deaths, wider impacts on workers’ health and productivity, and increased overheating in UK homes and buildings that are ill-equipped to stay cool in the summer,’ she added.
For Dr Otto, the temperatures afflicting much of the world are a reminder of how climate change, driven by human-made forces like planet-warming greenhouse gases, is changing the world.
The return of El Niño, a cyclical weather pattern, isn’t helping to keep the world cool either.
The planet has warmed about 1.1°C since the 19th century and, Dr Otto said, will continue getting hotter until countries stop burning coal, oil and gas.
‘Heatwaves will stop getting hotter only when the world reduces global emissions to net zero,’ Dr Otto said. ‘Until this happens, more and more people will die from heat-related causes.’