CREWS fought 14 wildfires across south Wales over the weekend, with emergency services warning the risk remains high.

South Wales Fire & Rescue Service said it was responding to “significant wildfire activity” with support from other services and military personnel. 

About 200 personnel from the Queen’s Own Gurkha Logistic Regiment have been deployed to provide logistical support, freeing firefighters to focus on front-line work.

On Friday evening, millions of people in England and Wales received a phone alert warning them of a “very high risk of wildfires nationally” as crews continued to tackle major blazes in the New Forest and West Midlands and hotspots from a month-long blaze in the Highlands.

Fire Brigades Union executive council member for Wales Gareth Tovey said: “Our members, firefighters on the ground, are saying that the conditions in which they’re fighting these fires are materially different from what we’ve experienced before: it’s so much drier. We’re seeing fires progress into areas and expand in ways that we haven’t necessarily seen before.”

He said firefighters were working 10 or 11-hour shifts on mountainsides without breaks, eating meals covered in soot.