July was worst on record for wildfires in England, data shows

Smoking rising from Dunwich Heath in Suffolk, where vast areas of a nature reserve were destroyed by fire. Photograph: Tolga Akmen/EPAView image in fullscreenSmoking rising from Dunwich Heath in Suffolk, where vast areas of a nature reserve were destroyed by fire. Photograph: Tolga Akmen/EPAJuly 2026 was worst on record for wildfires in England, data showsDevastating blaze near Sizewell B nuclear power station in Suffolk among a record 624 wildfires in July this year

This July was the worst on record for wildfires in England, provisional data shows, with England experiencing a clear upward trend in the total number of wildfires recorded.

This summer has been a stark reminder of the vulnerability of the UK to climate breakdown, after punishingly hot and dry weather turned large parts of the countryside into a tinderbox.

Provisional government data reveals 1,354 wildfires have been recorded so far this year, with 624 of these in July alone, making 2026 the second worst year on record.

July’s wildfires included a devastating fire that burned close to the Sizewell B nuclear power station in Suffolk and destroyed vast areas of a protected nature reserve.

The summer of 2026 was the UK’s hottest on record, according to provisional data from the Met Office, with 40 days of temperatures above 30C (86F) recorded, smashing the previous record of 34 days.

Scientists have said the record heat of 2026 has only been possible due to the climate crisis driven by fossil-fuel burning.

This year also marks the first time in the data series, which runs from 2010–26, that a death has been recorded due to a wildfire.

This incident involved the death of a 70-year-old man after a fire burned in fields behind Berrington Road and Castle Gardens in Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire.

Last week, the Guardian revealed that the government quietly scrapped plans to prepare the countryside in England for wildfires. This was despite new data showing fire crews do not have the proper protective gear to tackle them.

Alistair Carmichael, the Liberal Democrat MP for Orkney and Shetland and the chair of the Commons environment food and rural affairs committee, said this raised “serious questions” about whether this summer’s wildfires could have looked different with more resources on the ground.

This year is the second worst year on record in terms of total number of wildfires, with the worst being 2022, when 1,592 were recorded. 2022 was also a record year for heat, with the UK recording temperatures of 40C for the first and only time.

The 2026 data covers January to August only, whereas the 2022 data covers the full 12 months. Despite this, 2026 has already had a record number of woodland and forest fires, with 88 recorded.

After a wildfire spread across an area including several homes in Stourbridge in the West Midlands in August, the prime minister, Andy Burnham, convened an emergency Cobra meeting and issued a temporary ban on the sale of disposable barbecues.

The data shows a clear upward trend in the number of wildfires being recorded. Between 2010 and 2017, annual totals remained consistently under 750 (ranging between 310 and 721).

In contrast, four out of the last nine years exceeded 950 incidents.

The environmental author and campaigner Guy Shrubsole has accused respective governments of “fiddling whilst Britain burns”. He called on the prime minister’s upcoming Wildfire Summit to include “radical changes to how we fire-proof our landscapes – by restoring peat bogs, ponds and wetlands – and cut out the fossil fuels making wildfires worse”.

A government spokesperson said this summer was one of the “most challenging wildfire seasons on record”.

They added: “We have to make sure we are prepared for the threat of wildfires – which is why we have invested nearly £100m to upgrade national resilience assets and we are convening a summit with fire and rescue service partners to inform decision-making and make sure we have the right equipment and resources to be as resilient as possible.”