Norfolk FBU warn that our county still remains 'vulnerable' to wildfires
Norfolk Fire was one of 16 services to declare a major incident, meaning there were not enough resources to meet demand
Norfolk's Fire Brigade Union is warning that our county still remains vulnerable to wildfires, due to fields remaining dry and staff numbers going down.
Last week's heatwaves saw our service face nearly 300 blazes in a day - while Government figures shows we've seen a six per cent drop in firefighters since 2010.
"Just gives you an idea of how stretched we were"
Kevin Game, is chair of the Union, he says our service was really up against it last week: "Norfolk actually received nearly 4,500 calls in one day. If you compare that to a big metropolitan city like London on the same day, they had 2,600 calls and that just gives you an idea of how stretched we were".
Mr Game went on to say fundamental change is need across the country, now: "Because the climate has changed with businesses cutting back a bit, the work in the little villages isn't there anymore so a lot of the on-call fire-fighters are having to travel that little bit further into larger towns to get work and that then takes them out of their local area to crew their fire engines, so it's a national issue.
"Last week wasn't a one-off, we all know what's going on with climate change- we are seeing it on the front-line as well. We are getting field-fires more frequently in the summer and more flooding in the winter".
How climate change impacting firefighters’ availability
In 2019, CPRE Norfolk mentioned Norfolk as the most 'at risk' county in mainland UK due to climate change. Extreme weather, unusually high temperatures, regular drought, major flooding and countryside fires are among the risks listed.
They also predicted that "the Norfolk Broads could be entirely wiped out this century, and Norwich next-the-sea is not such a far-fetched concept."
Norfolk's fishing industry is jeopardised as well. CPRE mentions its vulnerability is due to the changing of acidity in their seas. As a result, businesses in Norfolk are being slowed down and impacted firefighters' availability.
Kevin told us: "Due to not having enough crew, Norfolk is a predominantly on-call service, so we heavily relied on part-time firefighters that carry a pager. They will have their primary work, so they work in the garage or local shop. And then, when a fire call comes in, they respond to their local station.
"But unfortunately, we just don't have enough firefighters and because the climate has changed now, businesses sort of cut back a little bit, the work in the little villages isn't there anymore. So, a lot of the on-call firefighters had to travel a little bit further into the larger towns to get work. And obviously, it takes them out of their local area to crew their fire engines."
An ongoing nationwide predicament
According to Kevin, Norfolk is not the only small town with this problem -- it is a national issue. After learning that there has been a 6 percent decrease of local firefighters since 2010, from 861 in 2010 to 807 in 2021, the FBU expressed concern.
Norfolk itself had 887 total staff in 2015 and 916 in 2020, which is lower than the staff they had in 2010, which was 1,008.
Over the past ten years, staffing levels in fire services around the UK have decreased. Norfolk has experienced more reductions than any other troops that issued a major incident declaration last week.
Between 2010 and 2021, Suffolk saw a 22 percent decrease in the number of firefighters, going from 782 to 607. While Cambridgeshire had a 19% decrease, going from 695 to 562.
From 625 to 402 firefighters, a 36 percent reduction, Buckinghamshire experienced the largest percentage reduction of the 16 areas to declare a significant crisis.
Kevin said: "The government needs to start investing and actually funding the Fire and Rescue services nationally, so that we can actually get those 1,500 firefighters back that we've lost and actually start the crew in our fire engine correctly as well."
"Because this isn't a one off. We all know what's going on with climate change. We're seeing it on the front like. We're getting field fires a lot more frequent, and then in winter time we're getting more flooding."
Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary, added: “The brutal truth is that government ministers and chief fire officers have ignored the warning signs which have been obvious for all to see.
“There is a growing anger at the way firefighters have been treated for more than a decade and at the way our service is being dismantled in front of our eyes.”
A Home Office spokeswoman said: “The government is committed to ensuring fire services have the resources they need to keep us safe, including from wildfires, and overall fire and rescue authorities will receive around £2.5 billion in 2022/23.”
She added that in order to ensure close agency collaboration and a successful response to events, the government published a wildfire framework in December