Government ‘guilty of criminal complacency’


Wildfires and other incidents stretched firefighters and control staff to the limit as the country faced record temperatures following a decade of government cuts, said the FBU firefighters’ union. It reported that 11,500 firefighter jobs have been slashed since 2010, leaving them at the forefront of the climate emergency, facing increased demands with fewer resources. As a result, the union said, firefighters were working in extreme heat and conditions for excessive periods of time. Employers asked people to give up leave to assist because of staff shortages, and there were a number of hospitalisations, it added. 


FBU general secretary Matt Wrack accused government ministers and chief fire officers of being “guilty of criminal complacency” as the union’s warnings of the growing threat fell on deaf ears.


“The fire and rescue service should plan for foreseeable risk,” he said. “The stark reality is that frontline firefighters and local communities have been let down by a combined failure of chief fire officers and politicians to face up to the scale of the challenge. It is simply untrue to say they have not been warned year after year of the risks posed by climate change.”


Wildfires have been on the government’s national risk register since 2013, FBU assistant general secretary Andy Dark added.