BBQ warning from Royal Berkshire fire service
RBFRS said in the event a fire does break out, people should not try to fight it themselves but call 999 and get to a safe location.
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The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Wildfire breaks out in London amid latest heatwave warning
A large wildfire in north east London has been tackled by 60 firefighters, as the UK heads for a potential fourth heatwave. Crews were called to Wanstead Flats on Monday after receiving reports that three hectares of grass had caught fire, with crews tackling multiple pockets of the blaze. A drone was also used by firefighters to monitor the size of the fire, while local residents were advised to keep their windows and doors closed and to avoid the area. The London Fire Brigade received over 30 calls reporting the fire, with crews from Leytonstone, Stratford, Leyton and surrounding fire stations mobilised to the scene. It was brought under control by 7.58pm, with firefighters remaining at the scene. It comes just one month after 70 firefighters were called to tackle a grass fire affecting 14 acres in the same location. Ten fire engines and a wildfire response vehicle were called to Wanstead Flats, near Capel Road in Manor Park, earlier on 11 July. In the coming days, areas of the UK are expected to be hotter than Bali, with thermometer readings forecast to hit the mid-30s on Tuesday. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has issued heat health warnings for all of England, with the East Midlands, West Midlands, East of England, London and the South East having been upgraded to amber, from 9am on Tuesday to 6pm on Wednesday. The South West, Yorkshire and the Humber, North West and North East have yellow warnings in place over the same period. The agency has warned of significant impacts across health and social care services due to the high temperatures, including the potential for a rise in deaths, particularly among those aged 65 and over or with health conditions. Forecasters have said that the consecutive days of high temperatures could mean the UK hitting its fourth heatwave of the summer. The heatwave threshold is met when a location records at least three consecutive days with maximum temperatures exceeding a designated value, according to the Met Office.
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Canada wildfire season already second worst on record as experts warn of ‘new reality'
With hundreds of wildfires burning out of control, Canada's 2025 fire season is already the second-worst on record, as scientists report climate change is prolonging and exacerbating the burning, leading to more destruction, evacuations and smoke-filled skies. More than 470 fires across the country are currently classified as 'out of control', according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC). 7,318,421 hectares of land in Canada have burned due to wildfires this year – close to 78% more than the five-year average of 4,114,516 hectares, according to the CIFFC's latest data. The 2025 fire season is only behind the explosive 2023 wildfire season, which resulted in an astounding 17,203,625 hectares burned. 'This is our new reality… the warmer it gets, the more fires we see,' said Mike Flannigan, the BC research chair for predictive services, emergency management and fire science at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops. A June analysis on the 2025 fire season in Canada published by United Nations University in Shibuya, Japan, concluded that the fires are a 'stark manifestation' of climate change and that warm, dry weather in the spring resulted in temperatures 2.5C above average. The warmer temperatures extend the fire season and increase the frequency of lightning that sparks fires, said Flannigan. A hotter climate also causes the atmosphere to suck moisture out of fuel, dead vegetation and the forest floor – creating ideal conditions for fires to start, he explained. 'It means more of the material is dried out, is available to burn when the fire does come, it leads to bigger flames, higher intensity, which gets to be difficult to impossible to extinguish,' he said. So far, the worst of the fires have been concentrated in the prairie provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba, which together account for about 60% of the hectares burned so far this year in Canada. Tens of thousands of people in communities across the country have been evacuated due to the wildfires. In Saskatchewan, the Canadian Red Cross reported it had assisted more than 17,000 people in the province from over 6,700 households to evacuate. Thirteen communities in north-west Saskatchewan are under an evacuation order, several of which are First Nations, according to the province. One of the most affected areas of this year's wildfire season in the province is Denare Beach, a north-eastern village that was mostly destroyed in June due to a blaze. The season has also now hit the east coast of Canada, as wildfires are currently raging across Newfoundland and Labrador and several towns are under evacuation orders. John Abatzoglou, a professor of complex systems management at the University of California, Merced, co-authored the June report from United Nations University. Abatzoglou said this year's fire season is the third year in a row Canada has seen fire activity that is well above average. The fires are also causing widespread smoke to cascade from the country into the United States as well, prompting severe air quality warnings in several states this month, is also an indication of how the fires are hurting populations beyond evacuations. It's an international element of the fires that officials are having to contend with on a wider scale, Abatzoglou said. 'This is a really key point that's different from other natural hazards and its ability to impact everything from quality of life to … human health and even mortality,' he said. Governments and public health will have to address how to change public behaviour and public policy to contend with 'smoke days', where you have to stay inside, he said. 'I know communities that may not have great infiltration systems … so more efforts there to provide resources to communities so that they can be safe indoors during acute smoke periods.'
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Europe's red alert HELL: Boy, four, dies of heatstroke in Italy as temperatures hit record highs in France and masses are evacuated in the Balkans as wildfires tear through
Deadly heat is searing parts of Europe as wildfires and heatwaves pose threats to life after one boy died of heatstroke in Italy. The four-year-old Romanian died on Monday just days after being found unconscious in the family's car in Sardinia. The unnamed boy was was airlifted to a Rome hospital but died of irreversible brain damage, the hospital said. The tragedy comes after Italy's health ministry issued a red alert warning for seven major cities, including Bologna and Florence. Some 11 Italian cities are on red alert for Tuesday, and 16 cities on Wednesday, while around 190 firefighters and the army continue to tackle a wildfire on Mount Vesuvius that caused the closure of the national park to tourists. Dramatic footage showed flames engulfing the volcano in Naples as firefighting teams both on ground and in the air rushed to the scene. Meanwhile, temperature records were broken in at least four weather stations in southern France, as the government called for vigilance. The southwestern city of Bordeaux hit a record 41.6C while all-time records were also broken at meteorological stations in Bergerac, Cognac and Saint Girons, according to the national weather service, Meteo France. The heatwave, the country's second this summer, began on Friday and was forecast to last possibly until August 19 or 20. On Monday, 12 French departments were placed on red alert, the country's highest heat warning, with four more expected on Tuesday. Elsewhere, people were also evacuated from dozens of homes in the Balkans as firefighters battled blazes in Albania, Montenegro and Croatia, where red alerts were announced. In Albania, hundreds of firefighters and soldiers had subdued most of the nearly 40 fires that flared up in the last 24 hours, according to the defence ministry, but more than a dozen were still active. Fires continued to burn in the southern coastal area of Finiq, around 160km south of the capital, where about 10 people were evacuated and several homes were razed on Sunday night, according to local media. Earlier, flames driven by wind and intense heat spread to the hills around the central southern city of Polican, prompting the evacuation of elderly residents from a care home and six families from nearby villages. The ministry said the fire had been controlled with no threat to surrounding communities. Around 800 Albanian troops have been deployed, along with military aircraft and helicopters from surrounding countries, to battle the wildfires. Women with a umbrella a fan walk near the Garonne river bank in the middle of the day in Toulouse, southwestern France on August 11, 2025. The heatwave that started on August 8, 2025 has intensified, with temperatures at an 'exceptional level' in the south-west, where 12 departments are classified under red heatwave alert until August 12, 2025 by Meteo-France Since the start of July, nearly 84,000 acres have been scorched nationwide, according to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS). Police allege that many of the blazes were deliberately lit, with more than 20 people arrested in recent weeks. Wildfires also damaged a UNESCO World Heritage-listed site in northwestern Spain. Spanish firefighters struggled to contain a wildfire that damaged a Roman-era mining site in Las Medulas and prompted hundreds of residents to evacuate. High temperatures and winds of up to 25mph created 'many difficulties', said Juan Carlos Suarez-Quinones, the Castile and Leon regional environment minister. 'We will not allow people to return until safety in their communities is absolutely guaranteed,' he told reporters, estimating that about 700 people had been displaced. Four people, including two firefighters, suffered minor injuries, he added. The blaze broke out on Sunday near Las Medulas, an area famed for its striking red landscape. Spain has been in the grip of a heatwave for the past week, with temperatures nearing 40C in many areas and fuelling wildfires. A local resident and firefighters use water hoses to cool down the soil after a wildfire in Congosta, Spain, August 11, 2025 Castile and Leon alone has seen 13 fires in the past three days, according to Suarez-Quinones, who said that some were believed to have been deliberately started. In neighbouring Portugal, firefighters were battling three large wildfires in the centre and north of the country. Elsewhere, just outside the capital of Montenegro, where temperatures soared to 40C, fire crews managed to save dozens of homes when a blaze broke out in inaccessible terrain on Monday, the commander of the Protection and Rescue Service, Nikola Bojanovic, told media. In Croatia, around 150 firefighters also spent the night defending homes from a blaze near the port city of Split. The fire started at 2:54am above Jesenice and Sumpetar in the area of Staro Selo. Around 150 firefighters with 50 vehicles are battled the blaze, supported by three Canadair aircraft and one Air Tractor. According to the chief fire commander of Split-Dalmatia County, Ivan Kovačević, flames threatened several homes during the night but firefighters managed to save them. Pave Tomić, the fire chief in Dugi Rat, told HRT that the situation remains serious. Smoke and flames rise from trees burning in a wildfire near Montenegro's capital of Podgorica, Monday, August 11, 2025 In Portugal today firefighters were battling three large wildfires in the centre and north of the country 'The fire is not under control and the affected area is large. We have no confirmed reports yet of destroyed residential or commercial buildings, and as far as I know there are no injuries. Our priority is to save houses and push the fire away from them, but we are far from bringing it under control,' he said. Several people have been evacuated as a precaution, confirmed national fire commander Slavko Tucaković. In the northwestern Turkish province of Canakkale, more than 2,000 people were evacuated and 77 people received hospital treatment for smoke inhalation after several fires broke out around the tourist village of Guzelyali, authorities said. On Monday Minister of Agriculture and Forestry İbrahim Yumakli shared the latest developments regarding forest fires on social media. He said: 'We have completely brought 45 of the 55 forest fires that broke out in our country today under control. 'The energy levels of the fires in Çanakkale Ayvacık and Ezine, Bolu Mudurnu, Kahramanmaraş Göksun, Muğla Milas, Hatay Yayladağ, and Manisa Şehzadeler have been reduced. A house is damaged by fire, as a wildfire burns in Erenkoy in the northwestern Canakkale province, Turkey, August 11, 2025 People load a water tank to help fight a wildfire raging in the northwestern Canakkale province, Turkey, August 11, 2025 A firefighter works as a wildfire burns in Kepez in the northwestern Canakkale province, Turkey, August 11, 2025 'Our teams continue to respond to the fires in Çanakkale Merkez and Dardanos, Manisa Soma, and Edirne Enez.' Yumakli emphasised that they are fighting with all their might to bring the ongoing fires under control as soon as possible, and said: 'We had previously issued warnings that we were going through a high-risk week for forest fires. 'Unfortunately, the risk will continue in the coming days. Please refrain from lighting fires or throwing cigarette butts outside. Let's avoid any behavior that could cause a fire.' Several homes and cars caught ablaze, according to images shown on Turkish media, while more than 760 firefighters, 10 aeroplanes, nine helicopters and more than 200 vehicles were deployed to battle the flames.
