‘Tremendous efforts’ by firefighters needed with increasing number of outdoor summer fires
Increasing number of fires in the summer months revealed
Hampshire and the Isle of Wight saw a 54 per cent increase in outdoor fires in 2025/26, compared to the previous year.
A Performance Report from the region’s chief fire officer, Sabrina Cohen-Hatton, said the surge is driven mainly by grassland, woodland and crops blazes from ‘prolonged periods’ of hot weather during the 2025 summer.
The paper, which covers the period April 1, 2025 to March 31, 2026, also shows firefighters attended 4,237 fires, representing a 17 per cent increase.
Matt Robertson, director of corporate services at Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service (HIWFRS), said the summer saw high numbers of fires in the open, with ‘tremendous efforts’ by on-call and whole-time crews, Fire Control colleagues, the Incident Command Unit and support teams.
Alex Quick, head of performance and evaluation at HIWFRS, previously told the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Authority that the 2025 summer had been the busiest since 2022.
A report presented to the supervisory body in December last year said climate change is predicted to increase both the ‘volume and severity’ of wildfires going forward.
The 2025/26 Performance Report’s findings include a five per cent reduction in dwelling fires, partly influenced by fewer home fires in flats and HMOs, and slightly less non-residential property fires.
HIWFRS’s average critical response time was nine minutes and 49 seconds in 2025/26, the same as the previous year.
The service said its critical response time reporting includes call handling times, to reflect the full time taken to respond to incidents.
A critical incident is one that endangers people or property, such as a building fire or road traffic collisions.
The report also said the service has seen a slight increase in sickness, mainly caused by musculoskeletal related absence – the highest short-term absence type.
It notes that in the previous year, mental health related absence was the highest sickness type overall and that where there is sickness, particularly short-term, this can have some effect on the availability of appliances.
In addition, the paper mentioned an overall reduction in the number of health and safety accidents and an improvement in the service’s percentage of female firefighters.