Paddleboarder and kayaker rescue three from sea off Jersey
Following the incident, the service reminded people to follow coastal safety advice. "The sea around Jersey can be unpredictable, with fast-changing tides and currents," it said. The service thanked the members of the public who helped as well as Jersey Coastguard and the RNLI Jersey St Helier Lifeboat, which also attended the incident.
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Farming Today 13/08/25 Pig rules, drought, carcass use
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Daily Mail
4 hours ago
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Labour's obsession with the religion of 'rewilding' threatens lives, livelihoods - and deadly moorland blazes
Wildfires are getting too close for comfort. The weekend blaze on Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh is the latest in a series of fires in what is already by far the worst year on record in this country. Our National Fire Chiefs Council has warned that not only are blazes increasingly common, they are increasingly dangerous and starting to cross the 'rural-urban interface'. As we have sadly seen in Los Angeles, even homes are under threat. The smoke, too, poses real dangers. The fumes from the devastating blaze on Saddleworth Moor in 2018 were inhaled by more than five million people, for example. The result, say scientists, is that more than 20 lives were brought to a premature end. You might be glad to learn that Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has put Angela Rayner in charge of the Government's response to this growing crisis. Or maybe you're not. Because I cannot see a single thing that Deputy Prime Minister Ms Rayner has done to tackle a threat made worse by tinder-dry vegetation – which is made all the more combustible thanks to the sharp reduction in humidity as the climate warms. So a smart response would be to reduce the volume of vegetation on our hillsides. And for thousands of years, this is exactly what our ancestors did by conducting controlled burns in the winter months. The vegetation, including dead bracken and heather, is carefully set ablaze by gamekeepers when the weather is cold and damp. The result is to lessen the intensity of wildfires that take hold in the summer by creating firebreaks and reducing the amount of fuel available. Burns like this also create a habitat for game birds, including grouse, curlew and lapwing, to thrive. 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It is hard not to believe the drive to rewild our uplands – which effectively means abolishing managed grouse moors – is being led, at least in part, by the metropolitan Left's sheer animosity towards country sports in general and gamekeepers in particular. Among other things, the creed of rewilding outlaws precautionary winter burns on our hillsides. The result of such bans is that year in, year out, the vegetation keeps growing. And out-of-control vegetation can lead to out-of-control fires. It is a particular irony that Ms Rayner's constituents in Ashton-under-Lyne, east of Manchester, were among those who could see the flames on Saddleworth Moor. For the blaze started on land where Natural England, the Government's environmental quango, was carrying out its rewilding vision by banning winter burns. Despite the evidence, the Labour Government, driven by Ms Rayner, is now attempting to ban preventative fires on swathes of English upland, with plans afoot to outlaw burns on hills and moors with a peat depth of 30 centimetres (11in) or more. The claim is that this would protect the peat. The zealots at Natural England want to go much further still, however, and – by threatening to withdraw subsidies to landowners – is attempting to outlaw burns on hills with a mere 10cm (4in) peat depth. Covering pretty much all English peat land, this means vast areas of the countryside would see vegetation building up with no control. It would be like putting jerry cans of petrol on our hillsides. Sooner or later, they will catch fire. The snobbery facing country people is best summed up by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, which, needless to say, is pushing for the ban on burning heather in the winter months. In fact, the RSPB is running what amounts in my view to a campaign of slander against country people. And that, in turn, is fuelling intimidation. One RSPB executive, for example, told listeners to BBC Radio 4's Today programme that gamekeepers were a 'co-ordinated gang of armed criminals roaming the uplands'. The same type of language is used in RSPB press releases. The result? Threats against, and even physical attacks on, gamekeepers, who will be especially vigilant this week as the Glorious Twelfth marks the start of the grouse shooting season. Yet gamekeepers are the heart of the countryside. If the craziness directed at them does not end, then jobs will be destroyed. Rural communities will disintegrate. Moorland hotels, taxi drivers and restaurants all rely on the seasonal income set to be destroyed by the vilification from the RSPB on the one hand and the mindless stupidity of Natural England on the other. Labour's old motto was that 'things can only get better'. 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Meanwhile, the European Commission recommends reducing wildfire risk by having more livestock grazing to keep the vegetation short. Yet what has Natural England done? It has decreed that the number of cattle and sheep on our hills be sharply reduced – a policy enforced by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs through its regime of subsidies. Sheep numbers have fallen by 7 per cent in the past two years. Country people care about this issue because they hate seeing their hillsides scarred. They hate finding the burnt bodies of animals which could not escape. And these, remember, are the farmers, gamekeepers and their wives who are on the front line helping to put out wildfires. Sooner or later, people will be killed fighting wildfires or die in their homes. The voters will know who to blame.
BBC News
5 hours ago
- BBC News
Hot, dry summers bring new 'firewave' risk to UK cities
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Guillermo Rein, professor of fire science at Imperial College London, has been working alongside the London Fire Brigade to help predict when conditions are ripe for a "firewave".Based on current forecasts, he believes London could be at risk again by this Fire Brigade Assistant Commissioner Tom Goodall said he welcomes any research that helps predict the likelihood of wildfires service is "ready to tackle the threat of wildfires head-on to help protect London's communities and green spaces", he added. 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But a warming world is creating conditions more conducive to these blazes."Climate change is bringing more heatwaves and longer dry spells," Prof Rein said."These conditions dry out fuels and increase the risk of wildfires. That risk is much greater now than it was even a decade ago."While the researchers focused on London, concerns are widespread."I worry about all other UK cities and other northern European cities in particular because climate change seems to be making green vegetation that was not flammable very flammable indeed," said Prof Rein."And these places don't have a history of dealing with wildfires so don't have as much institutional experience as cities in the south of the continent." Managing fire risk Urban environments like London, with their abundance of parks and green spaces bordering residential zones, are particularly concept of a "firewave" is meant to capture the unique danger posed when several fires erupt at once in densely populated areas, which has the potential to overwhelm emergency services and threaten homes and happened in the summer of 2022 when UK temperatures exceeded 40C for the first time on 19 July 2022, London Fire Brigade (LFB) experienced its busiest day since World War broke out simultaneously across the city, including a devastating blaze in Wennington, East London, which destroyed 37 buildings, five cars, and forced the evacuation of 88 Betts, a borough commander with the LFB, has extensive experience dealing with wildfires in urban emphasises the serious threat they pose, especially when open spaces are adjacent to residential properties."The potential for fires to spread into homes is very real," said Cdr Betts."We're seeing more extreme weather events, and that's why the London Fire Brigade has adopted a much more proactive approach." To meet this growing challenge, the LFB says it has invested in new technologies and now play a critical role in wildfire response, providing real-time aerial views that help commanders map fire spread and direct resources where they are needed most."The bird's-eye view from drones gives us a huge boost in situational awareness," explained a spokesperson from the LFB."It allows us to target our efforts where the risk to life and property is greatest."In addition to drones, the brigade has introduced off-road vehicles capable of reaching fires in difficult terrain, such as heathland and vehicles can be used to create firebreaks – using water to soak the ground to help stop fires from spreading Imperial College London researchers argue that the Met Office's current definition of a heatwave does not adequately reflect the wildfire risk in urban propose it adopts the term "firewave" to signal periods of extreme fire danger in cities - a concept they hope will inform future public safety strategies and climate resilience Met Office has been asked for comment. Sign up for our Future Earth newsletter to keep up with the latest climate and environment stories with the BBC's Justin Rowlatt. Outside the UK? Sign up to our international newsletter here.
