Firefighters have been battling a series of fires across the United Kingdom as a prolonged drought and persistent hot, dry weather keep the risk of major blazes elevated. Several of the fires have been declared major incidents, with crews stretched across England and Wales trying to stop flames from spreading through protected heathland and moorland during one of the driest spells in years.
One of the most serious blazes hit the New Forest National Park in Hampshire, an area of protected heathland that is home to a number of rare species. The fire started after a van caught fire on the nearby A31 on Sunday and then spread into the surrounding landscape. It was declared a major incident because of the severity of the wildfire, and the fire service laid a five-mile pipeline to pump water to the flames.
The size of the New Forest fire was put at approximately one square kilometre, described as about 140 football pitches, making it a really vast area for crews to contain. Heathland of this kind supports fragile ecosystems, and firefighters worked to keep the fire from moving further across the internationally important habitat while conditions remained tinder dry.
In Cambridgeshire, firefighters were still fighting to suppress flames at the Holm Fen nature reserve near Peterborough, where white-hot embers scorched the heathland that is home to a number of bird species and ancient birch tree groves. Local farmers joined the emergency crews, bringing mowers and cultivation equipment to cut a firebreak in an effort to protect the nearby village and the East Coast Main Line rail route.
In South Wales, a moorland fire near Ebbw Vale was also declared a major incident, with smoke drifting as far away as Gloucestershire. Helicopters were brought in to douse the flames from the air. With the dry, hot weather set to continue across England and Wales, fire services warned that the risk of more major fires around the country remained unabated.
The heat has been punishing the country's rivers and waterways as well. Water levels in one in five rivers are now classed as exceptionally low, and on the canals more than two dozen routes have already closed, with further closures expected if the dry weather holds. Ministers have been pressing water companies to fix their leaks faster as the shortage deepens.
Restrictions are already biting for households: temporary use bans are now affecting more than 27 million water customers, reducing demand by up to nine percent in some places, though not enough to break the drought. On farms the impact has been severe, with many growers reporting their earliest harvests in 20 years and disappointing yields, while livestock farmers are already dipping into winter stocks because the relentless heat has stopped the grass growing.