Fire officer warns of climate-driven cycle of wildfires and floods

A senior fire officer says her firefighters are now caught in a relentless cycle of battling summer wildfires and winter floods. Anna Morris Jones, a group manager at Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service, coordinated the wildfire response this past summer, which she described as "quite traumatic." She said it appears as a result of climate change, "we have two extremes, the wildfires in the summer and then the flooding in the winter." As a result, the service is now giving out wildfire advice while simultaneously dealing with serious flooding incidents.

Morris Jones said wildfire preparedness now begins in the depths of winter. "We're really starting some of our preparedness and prevention messages from almost from January, February, onwards, which I know sounds sometimes silly when we're in the depth of winter," she said. As a wildfire support officer, she was also involved in assisting neighbouring fire services over the summer, which put an extra strain on Shropshire's own resources. "We had an enormous amount of fires as well and we do help our cross border colleagues," she said. "But that day we had numerous calls of our own that we were dealing with."

The wildfires across the West Midlands caused widespread damage and affected dozens of homes. Morris Jones said the season was "unprecedented" and that she had not dealt with wildfires that serious before. There have been widespread calls to give fire services more resources to deal with wildfires and for a national change in focus to improve preparedness. West Midlands chief fire officer Simon Tuhill has called for more specialist resources, such as 4x4 vehicles and aerial firefighting capability.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham said leaders should be "better prepared next time" and announced a summit would be held in the coming weeks. "We shouldn't live through another summer like the one that we just have," Burnham said. Morris Jones echoed the need for more support. "I think we're doing all we can," she said. "We need more equipment, training and the expertise that go alongside that." One strategy Shropshire Fire Service has adopted is to work more closely with farmers and landowners, who Morris Jones said had been "absolutely amazing this summer in helping us."

With files from Yahoo News and BBC