Britain ignites as temperatures break 40C barrier for first time
Wildfires break out across the country, with dozens of homes destroyed, as heatwave peaks at 40.3C
‘It’s difficult to find a previous time when so much of the country has been affected. The fire weather is probably the most extreme that we’ve ever had’
A VILLAGE went up in flames yesterday as Britain faced infernos on its hottest day in history.
Hundreds of people were forced to flee their homes in Wennington, Essex, as firefighters tried to control a blaze that engulfed dozens of houses amid “tinderbox dry” conditions.
Across the country, major incidents were declared by 10 fire services, some stations ran out of engines and others stopped responding to automatic alarms as Britain recorded temperatures of more than 40C for the first time.
Temperatures peaked at 40.3C (104.5F)in Coningsby, Lincs, as Scotland also broke its heat record, with 34.8C at Charterhall in the Borders.
More than 30 weather stations broke the previous temperature record of 38.7C. Monday night was also declared the hottest on record, with temperatures never dropping below 25.8C in Kenley, Surrey. The heat caused travel chaos, with Network Rail warning passengers against using the railways.
Those hoping to travel north from Euston and King’s Cross were told “do not come to the station”, as train companies cancelled all services because of “extreme heat causing multiple incidents across the network”.
The A14 dual carriageway in Cambridgeshire was left looking like a “skate park” after it warped in the heat, police said.
Parents were urged to collect children in the middle of the day as classrooms became unbearably hot, despite the Prime Minister calling on schools to remain open.
And an ambulance control centre shut down yesterday after its water supply ran dry, while others across the country reported an increase in calls for fainting and heat exposure.
There were 90,592 visits to the heat exhaustion and heatstroke section of the NHS website as temperatures soared, equivalent to about 63 visits every minute.
At least 13 people have died in open water since the start of the heatwave, including four children.
The body of a 14-year-old boy was found in the Thames yesterday afternoon after he went missing while swimming in west London on Monday.
Rain brought some relief last night, with temperatures dropping to the mid20s today.
The Met Office’s fire severity index showed “exceptional” levels across most of England yesterday, but returns to “very high” or “high” today, more commonly seen at this time of year.
London Fire Brigade said it was tackling 10 significant fires across the city yesterday afternoon, using 110 engines.
Jonathan Smith, the brigade assistant commissioner, told Sky News that many of the fires were spread over wide areas and began because the ground was “tinderbox dry”.
Leicestershire Fire and Rescue said it would not attend automatic fire alarms, while in Cambridgeshire all 19 fire engines were in use and the service was drafting in extra firefighters.
Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service reported a threefold rise in 999 calls for fire and the highest number of blazes in a day for a decade.
Experts said the phenomenon of grassland fires moving into towns and cities and threatening lives had very rarely been seen before in the UK.
Steve Gibson, a specialist in wildfire operations, said the level of fire severity across the country was “rare, or possibly unprecedented”, adding that climate change meant these conditions would happen “more and more”. “It’s difficult to find a previous time when so much of the country has been affected,” he said. “The fire weather that we’ve got at the moment is probably the most extreme that we’ve ever had.”
Dr Gail Millin-chalabi, an Earth observation scientist at the University of Manchester, said: “I’ve never seen it like this before. I think this is unprecedented, really.”
Amid the heat, Boris Johnson told Cabinet yesterday that head teachers should “keep schools open”.
A Downing Street spokesman said Mr Johnson agreed with Steve Chalke, the head of the Oasis academy chain, who stated on Monday that it would be “unbelievably irresponsible” for any of the 53 schools in his trust to close. But Mr Chalke’s trust admitted yesterday that three academies had closed as temperatures reached 42C indoors.
At Elm Wood primary school in West Norwood, south London, parents were issued an “urgent collection request” at 2.30pm and told that “the extreme temperatures” had made the school building “incredibly hot”.
Unions criticised the Prime Minister’s advice. Geoff Barton, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “We are not sure how the Prime Minister knows the circumstances in the 22,000 schools in England to the extent that he can declare that they should all be open during an extreme heatwave.”
London Ambulance Service said it was under “extreme pressure” and receiving 400 calls an hour yesterday afternoon, linked to heat exposure.
NHS bosses said the unprecedented heat continued to affect urgent, emergency and planned care.
South East Coast Ambulance Service said the loss of water at its Coxheath centre, in Kent, meant staff were moved to a 999 call centre in Crawley.
The trust said it was “very busy” yesterday afternoon and asked patients to call NHS 111 if their condition was not “serious or life-threatening”.
An East of England Ambulance Service spokesman said it had received an “above average” number of calls since Monday afternoon. “Even when the temperatures drop, we expect to still [be] seeing an impact from heat-related illnesses into the weekend,” he said.
Elsewhere, doctors shared “fan plans” on social media instructing staff how to direct cool air throughout parts of hospitals without air conditioning.
LYNN SABBERTON thought it was only stubble burning in fields at the back of her village until her neighbour called to tell her the Green had gone up in flames.
Grabbing what little she could, Mrs Sabberton and her husband, who suffers from a debilitating lung condition, ran for their lives from their home in Wennington, on the eastern edge of London.
Outside their home, they were joined by dozens of other residents fleeing the Essex village as fire engulfed several homes along Wennington Road, the main street running through the village of 300 people.
Mrs Sabberton said: “We just had to get out of the house and shut the front door after us,” the pensioner told Sky News. “It was really spreading fast. It just spread that quickly and the wind caused it to go towards the village.”
As the fire tore through the village, near Rainham, London Fire Brigade declared a major incident owing to “a huge surge” in blazes amid the 40C (104F) temperatures, with 110 fire engines sent to 10 fires across the capital.
More than 100 firefighters were sent to tackle the blaze in Wennington, which has its own manned fire station but whose crews called for back-up as the flames spread quickly in the tinderbox conditions.
There were reports the blaze started in a compost heap and spread to nearby grass and undergrowth. John Bishop, who has lived in Wennington with his partner for the past decade, saw the fire from his window as it began to spread.
“The fire became an inferno incredibly quickly. I really don’t know about my home, I’ve been keeping an eye on it on the news via the helicopter pictures.”
Residents who had to leave their homes watched in horror as black smoke billowed into the air, with buildings and nearby fields on fire.
Helicopter footage showed more than half a dozen homes severely damaged, with other buildings in flames, including a row of terraced houses, along with outhouses, sheds, garages and agricultural units.
The village was cordoned off by police as fire crews from nearby Dagenham, Deptford, Bethnal Green, Woodford, Lee Green and Forest Hill used hose reel jets and main jets to tackle the
‘The fire became an inferno incredibly quickly. I really don’t know about my home’
blaze as it spread to homes from undergrowth and trees. Fire crews could be seen in back gardens directing jets of water over fences. One firefighter described the conditions as “absolute hell”.
Carole Stopp, 69, was with her sister Karen, a retired nurse, who was due to drive her to a hospital appointment when the fire started.
“Thick black smoke started rising at about 1pm,” said Mrs Stopp. “I said ‘oh my god’ and looked out the window. Our neighbour Tim’s front garden was on fire. We rang to see if he was OK. Tim was trying to put the fire out himself with a hose. Then we heard some large bangs – we think it must have been windows imploding because of the heat. We just grabbed the tortoise and left.”
Cleo, Mrs Stopp’s tortoise, which is 60 years old, was put into a cage and into the back of Mrs Stopp’s husband’s car, and covered with a blanket to shield it from the heat.
Gary Ruel, 63, a lorry driver who also had to leave his home by the Green, said: “I’m really worried about my house. I might have lost three cats, I got the dog out, but didn’t have time for the cats.”
The inferno – fanned by winds blowing across tinder dry scrubland – also came close to the church of St Mary and St Peter, which dates back to the 12th century.
Briae Brazier, 75, who lives in nearby
Rainham and works with horses, said: “The fire has burnt my stables out. It started as a little fire around the back of the houses and if someone had been there to put it out we wouldn’t have had all this trouble. It was a little fire out in the back garden.” Walter Martin, 61, landlord of Lennards, the local pub, which narrowly escaped the flames, said: “It’s awful. People are in shock. People are devastated.”
Nearby fields were seen to be badly scorched by the flames which could be clearly seen from adjoining roads, including the A13. The train operator c2c Rail said the line between Ockendon and Upminster had to be shut until the end of the day because of the fire.
LFB said 15 fire engines and about 100 firefighters were called to Wennington just after 1pm, but that the cause of the fire was not yet known.
Many residents did not know if their properties had survived the catastrophic fire. One man was reported by his niece to be digging a trench around his garden to stop the flames spreading to his property.
Another resident called Dave, who did not give his surname and has lived in Wennington with his wife for two years with their three children, ages 24, 12 and 10, received a frantic call from home while he was at work. “It was about 1pm and my wife rang to say there’s a fire,” he said. “I thought it probably wasn’t much to worry about as there’s been fires all over London today and the fire brigade have been taking care of it. My wife and children were evacuated, but my wife had to ask to go back in as she left the cooker on. We don’t know if our house is OK.”
Homes in nearby Dagenham were also evacuated after a fire, with many taking shelter at Dagenham & Redbridge Football Club. Elsewhere, LFB was dealing with a grass fire in Pea Lane, Upminster, along with a fire involving garden fencing and trees on Uxbridge Road in Pinner, a restaurant fire on Green Lanes in Southgate and other grass fires as far afield as Croydon, Dagenham and Hendon.