As communities pull together for families displaced after their homes went up in flames, exhausted firefighters call the events a ‘peek into the future’ – and fear there is worse to come
Where six family homes had stood on Woodland Drive in Barnsley on Tuesday morning, hours later all that remained were charred fragments of wooden beams and piles of ash that had once been treasured household possessions.
The street was one of the worst affected by raging fires brought on by record temperatures, which destroyed more than 60 homes across the UK, some completely razed to the ground.
A major incident was declared by emergency services in South Yorkshire, which was particularly badly stretched with at least four major house fires, and the fire service pulled in help from neighbouring areas, such as West Yorkshire and Derbyshire.
South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service was “maxed out” in terms of its response, with the service’s control room taking 2,195 calls in 24 hours.
By the end of Tuesday, four firefighters from South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue were hospitalised with heat exhaustion, due to tackling blazes wearing thick protective gear in temperatures over 40C. They have now recovered.
But many people have been left wondering how something like this could have happened.
Dave Walton, a West Yorkshire firefighter, described the events of Tuesday as a “gamechanger” and said it was “a peek into the future”.
He tweeted: “It’s about demand for fire engines and firefighters far, far outstripping the numbers that any reasonable person would expect to be available at any one time. It’s about a completely and fundamentally different operating environment where fires burn with such ferocity, and spread with such speed in suburban areas that you CAN’T STOP THEM.”
He said conditions in the UK were similar to those seen in hotter parts of Europe for the first time.
He added: “Your Fire & Rescue Service staff are heroes – every one of them – but they can’t work miracles. Today was about climate change, the hottest UK day on record – EVER! If you don’t believe in climate change ask a firefighter who has been on duty in the last two days what they think about it.”
Firefighters are warning that there will be more to come as homes remain “tinder dry” and vulnerable to being ignited by barbecues, bonfires and even glass magnifying the sun.
“Wearing my heart on my sleeve, I am concerned,” said Paul Heffernan, area manager for the South Yorkshire service.
“It’s not even August yet and based on previous summers, unless we have a torrid summer, I think it could get worse.
“I cannot praise the people in our service, the frontline firefighters and our partners, enough. They really have gone above and beyond and delivered a cracking service. But it’s a stamina game and it could be a long summer.
“If somebody’s careless with a barbecue, dropping some glass, or having a silly bonfire, it can have devastating effects on communities.”
A major incident was also declared in London on Tuesday after a surge in the number of call outs to the fire brigade. On Wednesday morning the city’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, said it had been the busiest night for the service since the second world war.
In Wennington, east London, Claire Taylor told the PA news agency her home was gone “within two minutes” of it catching fire. The mother of three said her family lost virtually all their possessions in the fire, adding that they were still in shock but “trying to muddle through”.
“This should be the start of the six weeks’ holiday. It should be all exciting,” she said.
On Wednesday, the scene of the fire was cordoned off and fire hoses were still lining the street.
Chris Stevens, a father of two, told the Guardian he was extremely shocked by the fires. “I’ve seen this on the television before. This happens in Portugal, this happens in Spain, this doesn’t happen in Wennington,” he said.
“I grew up in Dagenham and there were quite a lot of field fires in the summer but yesterday was just ridiculous, completely unprecedented,” he added.
Stevens was on a work call when the fire ignited and he described hearing a loud bang. When he saw the smoke coming closer to the house, he began to panic about his children’s safety.
“I just grabbed the kids [from school] and shot them to my parents’ house who live locally,” he said. “The roads here are quite dry. The fire would have to come some way to get to the house but it’s better safe than sorry. It’s really worrying.”
A resident who lives in the village argued that the government is not taking action fast enough to tackle the climate emergency. “What the government are doing is ignoring it,” she said. “I’ve lived 72 years and we’ve had heatwaves before but never the fires that we’ve had now.”
Communities on Wednesday were pulling together to help displaced families pick up the pieces of their lives, as many were left with only the clothes they were wearing when their homes went up in flames.
Paul Hughes, whose home in Kiveton Park, Rotherham, was one of three destroyed by fire, thanked neighbours for trying to save his house and said the support they had shown in the aftermath had “restored my faith in people and community”.
He said: “We are safe and with family and just trying to take this all in and make sure our boys are OK. [We’re] totally shocked and overwhelmed at the minute.”
A fundraiser for the families who lost their homes in Barnsley on Tuesday raised nearly £20,000 by the end of Wednesday, far surpassing its £1,000 target.
