In record 40C heat on 19 July 2022, 18 homes were lost in the village of Wennington, east London, in what firefighters described as a wake-up call for the UK's fragmented response to wildfires. The blaze, which jumped from a nearby field into the heart of the village, destroyed 70 houses across the UK that day, the largest loss of British housing to a threat previously associated with California or southern Europe.
Lynn Sabberton and her partner Terry were among those forced to flee as police kicked open their door. Terry, suffering from a lung disease worsened by the heat, initially refused to leave. The couple lost their home, along with 18 others in Wennington. The London Fire Brigade (LFB), one of the world's largest, deployed all 142 of its fire engines and ran out of resources, with incident commanders making desperate appeals for more crews, hoses and water.
The heat took a severe toll on firefighters, with one officer describing their protective suits as turning wearers into 'a boil-in-the-bag meal where you’re literally being cooked'. The LFB has since introduced wildfire training for all crews and purchased all-terrain vehicles and specialist equipment, but its commissioner has called for further investment to meet future threats.
Sami Goldbrom, an LFB group commander, warned that the destruction could have been far greater if winds had been stronger. 'There’s nothing to say that the fire couldn’t have spread all the way through... It could so easily have been a second Great Fire of London,' he said. New modelling by Dr Tom Smith of the London School of Economics, using a Canadian wildfire model, showed that minor shifts in wind direction could have caused the fire to rapidly reach 120 homes in nearby Dagenham, a result that Smith said made 'my hair stand on end'.
The UK's response to wildfires remains fragmented, with challenges including private water supplies and a lack of joined-up government thinking. The events of July 2022 have highlighted the need for a coordinated strategy to address a threat that is often underestimated in cooler or wetter weather.
