FIREFIGHTERS are warning that the UK is “woefully under-prepared” to tackle increasingly likely wildfires.

The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) said there was a “dangerous” lack in strategy, planning and investment across the UK.

Job cuts and under resourcing of fire and rescue services has already resulted in firefighters stretched beyond limits at incidents in the past decade, said the union.

Its report said almost 12,000 firefighter jobs have been cut in the past 10 years while wildfire risk has increased.

Wildfire preparation remains a “postcode lottery,” according to the FBU, with no statutory obligation for including the risk in local strategies,.

The union said devastating wildfires across Europe this summer should be a warning to prepare for rising temperatures over the coming years.

FBU general secretary Matt Wrack said: “As the climate changes, global temperatures are fuelling increasingly devastating wildfires.

“Understaffing and cuts mean that the fire service is woefully under-prepared for the task ahead. 

"Firefighters are already being pushed to breaking point responding to wildfires across the UK.

“These fires have been on the national risk register for a decade. We need a resilient, expanded fire and rescue service to ensure firefighters can respond to this threat.

“But instead of improvements we’ve had austerity and fragmentation, with a postcode lottery for wildfire response.

“To protect communities everywhere, we urgently need UK-wide standards, a coherent strategy, and investment.”

None of England’s fire and rescue national frameworks have referred explicitly to the risk of wildfires, the union said, despite them having been listed as a threat to national security on the National Risk Register since 2013.