New 'wildfire unit' used to help fight hundreds of fires in Nottinghamshire already this summer

After another week of hot weather, fire chiefs are warning record wildfire numbers are putting services under "huge strain".

Between 1 January and 12 August in 2025, there were 856 wildfire call outs in England and Wales.

In June alone, Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue attended 317 outdoor fires, roughly a 65% increase on the year before.

Nottinghamshire firefighter James Mcintosh, who’s trained to use the service’s new wildfire kit, told LBC: “Some were as small as just barbecues in the corner extinguishable by a bucket, but other fires were hundreds of metres by hundreds of metres, which in the past would have burnt for days.

“But most of the incidents we've had so far in this period of time we have dealt with in, you know, a number of hours, so already we're seeing the benefits of having this kit.”

Read More: Three arrested in murder probe after woman fatally assaulted in east London

Read more: Superman actor Terence Stamp dies aged 87

That kit cost the service around £100,000 and includes a hydro-wall (a 20 metre-long set of hose pipes which can create an eight metre wall of water), specialised axes (used by Californian fire crews to dig trenches which can block a rolling fire front), leaf blowers (for shifting dry leaves and other potential fuel to help control the fire) and lighter-weight PPE to keep firefighters cooler while battling the intense heat of a wildfire.

James says the new equipment would have made a huge difference had it been available three years ago, when the service had to call in help as 15 crews fought a wildfire near the village of Blidworth.

The fire started on the hottest day of 2022, 19 July, and burned for three days. People and livestock were evacuated, and acres of crops and woodland were destroyed.

Seth Vasey was the watch manager who was first at the scene, and told LBC: “It was horrible, an absolute nightmare. “We had a crew of four that day, and carry 400 gallons, 1800 litres of water and that's it.

“So I told them just to be frugal, just hit the fire front and stop it from going anywhere, because if the fire gets into the hedge it slows it down naturally, it's natural barrier, but if it's just running over open ground like, like standing corn fire or anything like that, you can't outrun it.

“There was burnt grass all the way around, all around this bungalow, but we managed to save it.

“The downside to that is I couldn't see where the fire was going to go next, without the kit to keep it under control.

With hotter, drier summers becoming the norm across the UK, fire services are being forced to rethink how they prepare for wildfires. 

Other fire services we’ve approached say they offer some officers “enhanced training”, but LBC understands only five out of 49 UK services have dedicated wildfire units.

It’s not only about having the right kit, however.

A good percentage of wildfires are classed as “deliberate” – well over half of the outdoor fires reported in Nottinghamshire last summer were started deliberately.

Seth Vasey says “going out into the woods is a great day, but don't take barbecues, don't smoke, don't leave rubbish around, don't leave glass bottles around.

“It wasn't just, you know, losing wood and losing valuable acreage for people to walk through. 

“It was about the wildlife as well. 

“You've got buzzards nesting down there, there's deer, sometimes they get trapped as well and you're just piling through them. 

“Walk through the debris of a of a forest fire, and you can see the evidence in front of you, the dead wildlife.”