"I Fear That Lives Will Be Lost," Climate Change Committee Chair Tells BBC After Record Wildfires
England and Wales had more wildfires in 2026 than in any year on record, according to a new BBC investigation.
What the BBC found
An investigation by BBC File on 4 Investigates reports that wildfire numbers reached a new high this summer, while firefighter numbers have fallen.
The key figures:
1,350 wildfires in England and Wales in 2026, an all-time high, according to National Fire Chiefs Council figures
up by more than 300 on 2025 and by more than 1,000 on 2024
earlier records broken in 2022 and again in 2025
wildfire risk could double across much of the UK by 2050, according to Baroness Brown, chairwoman of the Climate Change Committee (CCC)
£97m of government investment, including six specialist firefighting teams working across the UK
more than a fifth of UK firefighter and control room posts (about 12,000 jobs) cut since 2010, according to the Fire Brigades Union
One man died in a wildfire in Gloucestershire, 19 homes were destroyed in Stourbridge near Birmingham, and villagers were evacuated in the Cairngorms.
In Stourbridge, a couple told the programme about losing their family home in August. They are now living in temporary accommodation. That fire started accidentally in fields where farm machinery was in use on the hottest day of the year.
Baroness Brown said the CCC had warned the government for years that the UK was not ready for a changing climate, and that too little had been done.
"I fear that lives will be lost."
Baroness Brown, chairwoman of the Climate Change Committee, speaking to BBC File on 4 Investigates
Why fires are getting harder to fight
Steve Wright, general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, said the job cuts left crews dangerously overstretched this summer. Firefighters from London were sent to Yorkshire, and crews from Merseyside to Dorset.
"There's just not enough firefighters on the ground to be able to deal with them."
Steve Wright, general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, speaking to BBC File on 4 Investigates
Phil Garrigan, chairman of the National Fire Chiefs Council, welcomed the new funding but said more was needed for aerial firefighting and specialist equipment. Without it, he warned, 2027 and 2028 were likely to repeat 2026, when more than 50 homes were lost.
Fuel: the factor we can change
Preventing fires from starting matters too. The Stourbridge fire, for example, began by accident. Once a fire is burning, three factors decide how it behaves.
The first is weather. Long dry spells parch vegetation, and wind drives flames forward. The second is topography, meaning the shape of the ground. Fire moves faster uphill, and valleys can channel wind.
The third is fuel: anything that can burn, such as heather, grass, bracken and dead plant material. The amount of burnable material in an area is called the fuel load. A larger, drier fuel load produces a hotter, faster fire that is harder to put out.
Nobody can change the weather on a given day or reshape a hillside. People can limit how much fuel builds up, but most of that work has to be done months before the fire season. Longer, drier summers, which the BBC report says are predicted, would leave that fuel dry for longer.
How land managers reduce fuel
On heather moorland, land managers use three main techniques to keep fuel loads down:
Controlled burning. Small patches of heather are burned in a planned rotation. This removes old, woody growth and leaves a patchwork of younger heather, which holds less fuel and can slow a spreading fire.
Cutting (mowing). Machinery cuts heather and other vegetation to reduce its height and bulk. Land managers often cut where burning is not suitable, and cut strips can serve as fire breaks.
Grazing. Sheep, cattle and other livestock eat vegetation, keeping it shorter and limiting the build-up of dead material.
Burning and cutting are planned in advance and carried out in the cooler months, outside the summer fire season. The Moorland Association says licences to burn on deep peat have been hard to get since 2021, and the September 2025 change from 40cm to 30cm extends that restriction to more moorland, so fuel keeps building up.
Prevention alongside response
The £97m investment in specialist teams and equipment is welcome. The government describes it as the biggest upgrade to national resilience in 20 years.
But response on its own will struggle to keep pace. This summer showed what happens when several large fires burn at once and crews have to travel the length of the country.
Baroness Brown said preparation should include specialist teams and equipment, but also planning woodlands, thinking about fire breaks and early warning systems. A fire break is a strip of ground with the fuel removed, so a fire reaching it has little to burn.
She did not discuss moorland management. The principle behind a fire break, however, is the one land managers apply when they reduce fuel across wider areas. A fire that meets less fuel is easier for crews to bring under control.
Why this matters
The Moorland Association believes active, skilled land management reduces the fuel that feeds wildfires, protecting people, homes, wildlife and carbon stores.
