28 November, 2025

2025 has been the UK’s worst year on record for wildfires. According to the Global Wildfire Information System, more than 47,000 hectares of UK land have been scorched, the largest area since monitoring began in 2012. Extreme heat and prolonged dry spells are turning moorlands and heathlands into tinderboxes, and this is no longer a rare event. 

We explored these climate change impacts in Aviva’s Building Future Communities report, which looked at how climate change could reshape the UK over the next 20–30 years. It warned that by 2050, maximum annual temperatures in parts of the UK could rise by up to 3.5°C in some areas (compared to 1981-2010 standard normal), making heatwaves and wildfires far more frequent. The same report highlighted flooding and subsidence as parallel risks, all of which will put pressure on emergency services and infrastructure. 

Right now, that pressure is already showing. The Guardian’s article highlights how underprepared UK Fire services are to adapt to this new reality, with Greater Manchester fire services needed to tackle blazes in Devon. This also increases the personal risk faced by firefighters who are equipped and trained for house fires, not vast moorland infernos. Critically, these same services are required for storm and flood recovery. The Fire Brigades Union has now written to the government demanding urgent investment in resources and training, warning that climate change is stretching services to breaking point 

The idea that climate change is a distant problem is hard to shake. But this year’s wildfires are a wake-up call: resilience planning must go beyond roads and buildings – it must include the critical services and people that keep communities safe.

By Budd Nicholson