Zoe Head-Thomas, Press Association
Wales must prepare for another “difficult” summer of wildfires after a series of major incidents were declared this year, the First Minister has warned.
Rhun ap Iorwerth promised his government would “add urgency” to its response to wildfire risk at a summit held on Thursday.
With 14 consecutive incidents ongoing at one time and fire zones identified in more than 50 locations, Wales had to declare four major incidents this summer.
South Wales Fire and Rescue Service (SWFRS) alone saw a 227% increase in calls and responded to more than 1,000 grassfire incidents, leading to support outsourced from services across England and the UK military in August.
The First Minister said: “There is an absolute determination to make sure we are collectively prepared for what is likely to be another difficult spring and summer in 2027.”
Fire and police chiefs, environmental experts, union and farming representatives, and members of the Senedd contributed to the roundtable discussion at the Welsh Government’s Merthyr Tydfil offices on Thursday.
On a visit to Aberdare Fire Station following the summit, Mr ap Iorwerth said: “We’re looking at a whole range of ways of making sure that the land is managed in order to reduce the risk of wildfires.
“We can look at individual elements around that, around burning, around how much vegetation there is, around how wet we make the land in different ways.
“It is never one thing.”
The summit highlighted gaps to be filled to better prevent and tackle wildfires, including the lack of aerial support in Wales.
Speaking to the Press Association after the meeting, Air Vice-Marshal Fin Monahan, said: “Aerial support is not prioritised, not tasked, so you grab a helicopter where you can.
“Also, helicopters are not held at high readiness, and for a helicopter firefighter response to be effective, you need to get to the point of ignition as quickly as possible.
“48 hours later is not good enough.”
‘Crisis’
Gareth Tovey, executive council member of the Fire Brigades Union, said there were too few firefighters to guarantee resilience to wildfires, describing the situation as a “crisis”.
He said that a shortage of crews was leading to members of the public responding to efforts in fighting blazes more often.
He added: “Community resilience is really important but we’re really clear that well trained, well equipped professional firefighters are the people that are equipped to safely put fires out.
“What we wouldn’t want to see is members of the public being used in an operational capacity to justify years of underfunding of fire and rescue services.”
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