UK Wildfire Response Is "30 Years Behind" - And Firefighters Are Paying the Price
- Rob Beeson
- 24 hours ago
- 5 min read
Updated: 5 hours ago
When moorlands burn, the UK's fragmented emergency system puts lives at risk. Here, frontline experts reveal why our wildfire governance is stuck in the past, and what needs to change now.
The Wake-Up Call Being Ignored
Wildfires are no longer a distant threat reserved for California or Australia. They're happening here, in the UK, with increasing frequency and intensity. Yet according to a civil servant working in environmental policy, our governance structure for managing this threat is a staggering "30 years behind" the model we use for flooding.
The difference? Floods have a clear command structure, dedicated funding, and integrated planning. Wildfires have none of these.
As part of her Masters Dissertation, Daisy Irwin spent months interviewing firefighters, academics, civil servants, and landowners about the UK's wildfire preparedness. What they told her should concern us all.
Problem 1: Nobody's Actually in Charge
The core issue: No single department owns wildfire strategy. Instead, responsibility is scattered across multiple agencies, each focused on their own narrow remit.
As one northern academic put it: "Everyone comes at it from their own perspective."
Here's what that looks like in practice:
Natural England focuses on biodiversity
Fire and Rescue Services handle operational response
The Forestry Commission manages trees
Nobody coordinates the overall strategy
This isn't just bureaucratic inefficiency - it's dangerous. The same academic warned: "The worst thing that you could do is have it so siloed that nobody talks to each other in those different phases."
The result? No long-term planning. No consistent approach. A northern wildfire lead described the "disconnect within government departments" and argued that only a national strategy can make wildfire management "more cohesive and more strategic."
Problem 2: A "Postcode Lottery" for Firefighter Safety
This systemic fragmentation isn't just an abstract policy problem. It has life-or-death consequences.
A station manager delivered this stark warning about inconsistent training across the country: "One of our biggest risks really is if our firefighters don't understand wildfires... that's where we could easily lose a firefighter."
Think about that. The level of safety and preparedness your local fire crew has for wildfire response depends on where you live, not on a national standard of care.
The Funding Crisis Nobody's Addressing
Behind this dangerous inconsistency lies a severe funding shortfall. A crew manager offered this chilling assessment of political inaction:
"I'll guarantee you they won't spend the money until they have a huge outcry from the public, and that will only happen when a few deaths have happened, unfortunately."
We're essentially waiting for tragedy to force action.
Too Few Experts, Too Little Support
The UK relies on a small number of national tactical advisors who can deploy to major incidents. But as a northern wildfire lead explained, these vital experts have "no actual big bit of kit or deployable teams" backing them up.
When a major wildfire hits, we're one or two key people away from system failure.
Problem 3: Ignoring the People Who Know the Land Best
Perhaps the most frustrating gap in UK wildfire strategy is how little we use the expertise of people who manage the land every day.
The Fire Triangle: A Landowner's Perspective
A northern landowner broke down wildfire prevention in simple terms. You need three things for fire: ignition, oxygen, and fuel.
"That leaves you with only one other tool to play with, which is fuel."
Managing fuel load through controlled burning and cutting is the primary way to prevent catastrophic fires. Yet land managers' expertise is routinely sidelined in official policy.
Local Knowledge Saves Lives
The same landowner emphasised that local land managers know the terrain intimately - "where the bogs are, where the crossing points are." This knowledge is invaluable during emergency response, potentially saving firefighters from hidden dangers.
This isn't theoretical. A station manager recounted how local farmers showed up to one fire unsolicited with "five tractors with bowsers on" to transport water for crews. This spontaneous support "wasn't through a pre-plan" - it was community members stepping up.
We have a powerful informal resource network that official governance completely fails to integrate.
Problem 4: We're Dramatically Underestimating the Real Costs
The government's official risk assessment appears dangerously disconnected from reality.
Our "Worst-Case Scenario" Has Already Happened
The National Risk Register defines the worst-case wildfire scenario as lasting 4-7 days.
We've already exceeded this:
Saddleworth Moor fire: Burned for three weeks
Winter Hill fire: Burned for six weeks
Our baseline assumptions are outdated before they're even published.
Ecological Devastation That Lasts Centuries
A severe peat fire doesn't just burn vegetation. As a northern landowner explained, it causes the "massive loss" of:
The soil itself
The dormant seed layer within it
The "carbon store" accumulated over centuries
This damage is functionally irreversible within human timescales.
The Numbers Don't Add Up
There's a reason official cost estimates seem low: we're not actually calculating them properly.
An academic researcher stated bluntly: "We've got no good quality costings on things." A wildfire lead confirmed: "We've got no real way at the minute of quantifying what the real cost of wildfire is."
This explains the vast gap between the National Risk Register's estimate of "Tens of Millions £" and research from the Moorland Association finding that wildfires cost the UK more than £460 million in 2025.
We can't manage what we can't measure.
What Actually Needs to Happen
The experts that were spoken to were clear about what reform looks like:
1. Create a National Wildfire Strategy
A unified strategy would establish clear accountability and force departments to work toward common goals. As one academic argued, it would require government to set "certain targets and measurables" that departments can't ignore.
2. Invest in Frontline Training and Resources
Firefighter safety shouldn't depend on postcode. A northern wildfire lead called for "core foundation level wildfire training for all firefighters" to provide the basic principles needed to operate safely nationwide.
3. Recognize Controlled Burning as Essential
While controversial in some circles, frontline experts see controlled burning as vital. A northern wildfire lead put it pragmatically: "Prescribe/control burning can help us a lot" in reducing dangerous fuel loads before they become uncontrollable fires.
4. Educate the Public
Wildfire prevention needs to enter the national conversation. One academic made a common-sense proposal: if we teach children about road and water safety in schools, wildfire safety should be part of the curriculum too.
The Bottom Line
The evidence from frontline experts is unanimous: the UK's approach to wildfire governance is dangerously reactive, fragmented, and unsustainable.
We have:
No clear command structure
Inconsistent training and resources
Sidelined local expertise
Grossly inaccurate cost estimates
Outdated risk assessments
What we're doing now isn't a strategy, it's crisis management on repeat.
Waiting for a nationally televised tragedy isn't policy. It's an abdication of responsibility.
The time for coordinated action was yesterday. The question is whether we'll act before the next major wildfire, or after.