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Steve Wright
CLIMATE CHANGE: Firefighters tackle a wildfire on Saddleworth Moor, Greater Manchester, June 2018
TUC Congress 2025 / 8 September 2025
8 September 2025

Since 2010, one in five firefighter jobs has disappeared alongside 30% funding cuts — all while climate breakdown brings record blazes and flooding. It’s time to fund our fire service properly, writes FBU general secretary STEVE WRIGHT

A blaze across a large area of gorse in Newry, where firefighters are tackling the flames which have been burning for several days, as the Northern Ireland Fire & Rescue Service said the wildfire at this stage appears to have been deliberately started, April 2020
Features / 3 May 2025
3 May 2025

When it comes to extreme weather events, from wildfires to flash floods, it’s firefighters who are on the front line of defence, but services have been cut to the bone, and government is not taking seriously its responsibility for the environment, says STEVE WRIGHT