Nottinghamshire Declares Major Incident as Wildfires Spread
Nottinghamshire declared a major incident on Sunday as firefighters battled large woodland fires, including one near Mansfield, amid the tinder-dry conditions of the drought. The fire service said a wave of simultaneous call-outs had stretched its resources. It was among a spate of blazes across the country as another heatwave built.
Declaring a major incident unlocks extra resources and coordination between emergency services, a measure of how serious the fires had become. Weeks of record heat and the driest July on record have left the countryside primed to burn, and fire chiefs have repeatedly warned of the danger. Grass and woodland fires have flared across England through the summer, straining brigades already stretched thin. With more extreme heat forecast, the risk is set to climb further. Watch whether the fires are contained and how services cope with the days ahead.