Calls for a dedicated UK national wildfire service are growing louder. Given the huge recent fires across the country, this is an understandable reaction – people see specialist aircraft used in Spain, Portugal and Greece and want the UK to have something similar.

Sudden climatic stresses are increasing periods of prolonged heat, drought and dry vegetation, creating conditions that make larger and faster-moving wildfires more likely.

So, a specialist national wildfire service for the UK deserves serious consideration. However, aircraft, helicopters and highly trained firefighters alone will not solve Britain’s growing wildfire challenge.

International experience consistently shows that some of the most effective wildfire risk reduction happens long before the first emergency call is made. Places with established preparedness programmes experience fewer accidental ignitions, detect fires earlier, and evacuate people more effectively.

The UK therefore needs to complement any future national wildfire service with a comprehensive community-based programme.

This approach is becoming increasingly relevant in Britain. Although the UK does not experience the vast forest fires seen in southern Europe, North America or Australia, fires are happening more often in grasslands, heaths, moors, peatlands and the areas where homes and businesses meet those wilder landscapes.

As the UK’s........

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