Fire chief praises “exemplary” crews after unprecedented heatwave

Chief fire officer Chris Kirby said: “I want to pay tribute to and pass on huge thanks to firefighters, officers and control room staff who dealt with an unprecedented surge in demand for our services, and also to the support teams from across the service who helped with vehicle issues and logistics, delivering of supplies to incidents and provided general support.

“Their professionalism, dedication and commitment to serving our communities was exemplary and I am so proud of their efforts.

“I have worked within the fire and rescue service for almost 24 years and I cannot recall such an unprecedented level of demand, in such difficult conditions.

"As the surge in calls ramped up, our control staff and officers had to prioritise incidents based on risk to life and property.

"On occasion, we had to leave fires burning that were not affecting life or property to attend other, more serious incidents.

“Normally, if we experienced a high demand such as this, we could request support either regionally or nationally — but the difference was that almost every single fire and rescue service was experiencing the same thing. 

“If the record breaking temperatures we saw across the UK are a sign of things to come, then the whole sector needs to be better equipped to deal with such extreme levels of demand.”