AI unit to tackle UK wildfires to be unveiled by Andy Burnham at first resilience summit
Andy Burnham will announce plans for an AI unit to tackle UK wildfires at the government's first wildfire resilience summit on Friday, after the country's hottest-ever summer fuelled fires across the nation.
AI unit to tackle UK wildfires to be unveiled by Andy Burnham at first resilience summit
Andy Burnham will announce plans for a new wildfire AI unit at the government's first wildfire resilience summit on Friday. The move follows the UK's hottest-ever summer, with prolonged dry periods and extreme heat fuelling wildfires that triggered an emergency alert to mobile phones in England and Wales.
What the AI unit will do
The AI Cobra unit will be created to spot wildfires, sitting in the National Situation Centre, which is part of the Cobra briefing rooms. The government said the new unit would enable it to "spot and fight fires faster".
It comes after figures released on 8 October showed a clear upward trend in the number of fires recorded each year, and after the Met Office found the climate crisis made this year's extreme heat about 130 times more likely.
PPE and military support for fire crews
The prime minister will announce £45m for fire crews to buy wildfire-specific personal protective equipment (PPE). The funding responds to gaps in the kit firefighters have had to work with:
- More than half of the 29 fire services that responded to requests for information had no wildfire PPE, according to a Guardian reveal
- Standard particle-filtering respirators do not protect against dangerous gases such as carbon monoxide, heavily present in wildfire smoke
- Standard PPE can cause crews to overheat, or remove their PPE altogether, in wildfire conditions
The prime minister will also announce that military planes and helicopters will be made available to fight wildfires on remote moorland. Defence secretary Wes Streeting said: "As the threat of wildfires in the UK grows, defence will step up to provide greater support".
Land restoration and fire prevention
The government will allocate £25m to restore dried-out peatlands in England so they hold more water and act as natural firebreaks. Farmers will also be given funding to make landscapes more resilient to fires, with financial support to fireproof their land under a grant scheme expected to run from April 2027 to April 2029.
Further measures could include tougher local restrictions or product bans to stop people starting fires when risk is high. In August, Burnham announced a temporary ban on sales of disposable barbecues.
Questions over the government's record
The announcement follows the government quietly scrapping Conservative-era plans to prepare the English countryside for wildfires. Alistair Carmichael, the Scottish Liberal Democrat MP who chairs the Commons environment, food and rural affairs committee, raised "serious questions about whether this summer's wildfires could have looked different with more resources".
Burnham has also been criticised for failing to address the climate emergency in his wildfire response. In Suffolk, the fire and rescue service dealt with an "apocalyptic" wildfire that burned close to the Sizewell B nuclear power station and destroyed vast areas of a protected nature reserve.
At Friday's summit, businesses including Google, Airbus and VodafoneThree are expected to present satellite monitoring and early warning systems.
