It’s been a year of extraordinary challenges for the United Kingdom’s fire and rescue services, as wildfires and floods have battered the nation with unprecedented force. According to the Global Wildfire Information System, by November 2025, wildfires had scorched 47,026 hectares (116,204 acres) across the UK—more than double the area burned during the previous record-breaking summer of 2022, and the largest since monitoring began in 2012. This surge in destructive fires, combined with increasingly severe flooding, has left fire crews stretched thin and sparked urgent calls for government action.
The scale of the devastation is not just a matter of statistics. In August, a relentless blaze at Holt Heath in Dorset proved so overwhelming that firefighters were drafted in from across the country. Local resources, as reported by The Guardian, were “shockingly thin on the ground,” forcing 17 fire and rescue services to coordinate their response. Many of the responding firefighters arrived without specialist wildfire personal protective equipment (PPE), putting them at greater risk of heatstroke, exhaustion, and burns. The situation was so dire that the Fire Brigades Union, joined by climate groups and tax justice organizations, penned a letter to the government pleading for long-term investment in the UK’s fire and rescue services.
“There is stark evidence that the UK is dangerously underprepared for the growing threat of wildfires, flooding, and the wider impacts of the climate crisis,” the letter stated, as cited by The Guardian. The signatories—Greenpeace, Tax Justice UK, Friends of the Earth, among others—urged the chancellor to “act decisively to provide the investment, strategy and leadership that firefighters and the communities they protect urgently need to tackle the realities of climate change.”
September brought more harrowing scenes, this time on Langdale Moor in North Yorkshire. Crews, joined by local farmers, gamekeepers, and landowners, fought a huge blaze that burned for weeks. The fire’s persistence highlighted the growing complexity of wildfire management in the UK, where landscapes once considered low-risk are now vulnerable to prolonged, intense fires. Once again, the fire service’s limited resources were laid bare, with equipment shortages and understaffed control rooms hampering their efforts.
The numbers behind these struggles are sobering. Since 2010, the UK fire service has lost nearly 12,000 firefighters—amounting to one in five posts. Central government funding for fire services has been slashed by 30% in cash terms, according to figures reported by The Guardian. This under-investment has left many services facing equipment shortages, insufficient protective gear, and control rooms that can barely keep up with the volume and severity of emergencies. “This under-investment is impacting response to climate change incidents,” the Fire Brigades Union’s letter warned.
But it’s not just wildfires that have put the fire service to the test. Flooding, too, has become a relentless adversary. In November, Storm Claudia brought severe flooding to parts of the UK, forcing firefighters to deploy all available water rescue resources. Sam Harding, a Monmouth firefighter who helped rescue survivors during the storm, described the ordeal: “The flooding was some of the worst we’ve had in recent years, and required all of our water rescue resources,” he told The Guardian. “If there had been another flooding incident elsewhere in south Wales requiring water rescue, I don’t know how we would have been able to respond. Government cuts to funding mean the resilience isn’t there to cope with multiple severe incidents like flooding, and we’re seeing more of them.”
The growing risk of flooding is not a distant threat. Last month, The Guardian revealed that millions more homes in England, Scotland, and Wales are likely to face devastating floods in the coming years, with some towns potentially becoming uninsurable and even abandoned. The fire service, already on the frontline of these emergencies, is being asked to do more with less.
Against this backdrop, the calls for action have grown louder. The Fire Brigades Union, backed by environmental and social justice groups, has demanded “substantial, long-term investment in the UK’s fire and rescue service.” Their letter to the government stresses the need for sufficient firefighters, emergency fire control staff, and specialist resources to meet the escalating risks posed by wildfires and flooding. The argument is clear: without a coordinated strategy and increased funding, the nation’s ability to respond to climate-driven disasters will continue to erode.
Government officials have acknowledged the seriousness of the situation. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government told The Guardian, “We know the risk wildfires and floods pose to communities, which is why we are taking decisive action to ensure fire services and national bodies can manage and respond to emergencies.” Part of this response includes funding a National Resilience Wildfire Advisor, tasked with supporting a more coordinated and effective response to wildfires. The government also maintains that it is working to ensure emergency services have the resources they need to keep the public safe.
Yet, for many on the ground, these measures seem insufficient given the scale of the crisis. The experience of 2025 has laid bare the vulnerabilities in the UK’s emergency response infrastructure. Firefighters have repeatedly found themselves battling not just the elements, but also the consequences of years of budget cuts and underinvestment. The lack of specialist PPE during the Holt Heath wildfire is just one example of how resource constraints can place frontline workers at risk.
Meanwhile, the broader context of climate change looms large. Scientists warn that the frequency and severity of extreme weather events—wildfires, floods, storms—are only likely to increase in the coming years. The summer of 2025 was a stark illustration of this trend, with wildfires burning through more land than ever before and floods hitting communities with little warning. The UK, once considered relatively sheltered from such extremes, is now facing the reality that it must adapt or risk being overwhelmed.
Amid these challenges, stories of resilience and determination have emerged. Firefighters, often working alongside local residents, have shown extraordinary commitment in the face of danger. The restoration of a vintage VW Bus after the Palisades Fire, reported on November 23, 2025, serves as a small but poignant symbol of recovery and hope in the wake of destruction. But for many in the fire service, hope alone is not enough. As the Fire Brigades Union and its allies have made clear, only decisive investment and strategic leadership can ensure that the UK is prepared for the climate challenges ahead.
The events of 2025 have made one thing unmistakably clear: the era of climate-driven emergencies is here, and the UK’s response will depend on its willingness to invest in those who protect its communities from fire and flood alike.
