{"id":722775,"date":"2026-08-01T12:59:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T12:59:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/722775\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T12:59:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T12:59:20","slug":"national-trust-paid-for-helicopter-to-fight-suffolk-wildfire-because-uk-has-none","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/722775\/","title":{"rendered":"National Trust paid for helicopter to fight Suffolk wildfire because UK has none"},"content":{"rendered":"

The National Trust <\/a>was forced to find a helicopter to help fight the huge wildfire<\/a> that has devastated parts of Suffolk as the UK Government\u2019s firefighting aircraft were unavailable, it can be revealed.<\/p>\n

Britain\u2019s biggest conservation charity was forced to step in after Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service issued a plea for support to stop the fire spreading to nearby villages.<\/p>\n

Fire services have been warning they do not have enough resources to deal with wildfires, including no direct access to aircraft.<\/p>\n

It is not the first time this summer the National Trust has been forced to locate aircraft to help fight wildfires; the charity has also sourced helicopters to tackle blazes in the Peak District and on the Isle of Wight.<\/p>\n

It comes after The i Paper revealed that the UK Government has been unable to deploy its military firefighting helicopters to tackle multiple wildfires this week as they are currently based more than 2,000 miles away in Cyprus<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The National Trust is calling on the Government to ensure \u201crapid-response arrangements\u201d are in place for wildfires, including aerial firefighting support. <\/p>\n

\u201cWildfires can spread rapidly and every minute counts. Early access to the right resources gives firefighters the best chance of protecting communities, wildlife and landscapes, and preventing small incidents from becoming major disasters,\u201d a National Trust spokesperson said. <\/p>\n

They said such support was \u201curgent in view of the extent of drought conditions and the ongoing risk across the country\u201d.<\/p>\n

Fire devastates Dunwich Heath\u00a0<\/p>\n

A major incident remains in place in Suffolk after a fire broke out at Dunwich Heath near Sizewell B nuclear power plant on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The fire has destroyed an area of rare heathland the size of 200 football pitches, while the neighbouring RSPB Minsmere reserve has also been badly affected.<\/p>\n

\"AThe National Trust has said it could take 25 years for Dunwich Heath to be restored (Photo: Jack Taylor\/Reuters)<\/p>\n

The National Trust said it approached a \u201creputable\u201d company for help tackling the blaze on Thursday morning following a request for air support from the Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service.<\/p>\n

The company provided an Airbus Helicopter H125 that was \u201chugely significant in supporting the efforts of the fire service, National Trust, RSPB, local farmers and others on the ground in efforts to contain the blaze as quickly as possible\u201d, a spokesperson for the charity said.<\/p>\n

The National Trust said it has \u201cinsurance and funding arrangements in place to support its contribution to the emergency response\u201d, adding that the fire service has \u201cnow taken over contracting of the helicopter\u201d.<\/p>\n

Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service was unable to comment but confirmed the National Trust brought in a privately owned helicopter to assist in the firefighting efforts.<\/p>\n

National support needed<\/p>\n

None of Britain\u2019s 49 fire and rescue services currently have direct access to a firefighting aircraft or helicopter similar to those seen in recent days dropping water to quell vast wildfires in France<\/a>, Spain and elsewhere in Europe.<\/p>\n

The UK does have RAF Chinook helicopters that are capable of fighting wildfires, but The i Paper revealed on Thursday that they were on standby at RAF Akrotiri <\/a>in Cyprus ready to help with blazes on the island.<\/p>\n

The National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) warned this week that climate change was driving a long-term wildfire risk in the UK and more investment was needed to meet demand, including access to an aerial firefighting capability.<\/p>\n

The National Trust added to calls for fire services to have better access to firefighting aircraft.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a real need for fire services across the country to have instant access to this vital service and support, to ensure that people, places, precious landscapes and wildlife have the best possible chance of surviving such incidents,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

\"ScreenThe wildfire at Dunwich Heath stretched across an area the length of 200 football pitches along the Suffolk coast (Photo: Ryan Lovejoy\/PA)<\/p>\n

On Friday, the conservation charity launched an appeal<\/a> for donations to restore Dunwich Heath, which is one of the UK\u2019s rarest habitats.<\/p>\n

They said it could take 25 years to restore the site, which was famous for the purple heather that carpets the ground in the summer and provided an important habitat for wildlife including nightjars, adders and silver-studded blue butterfly.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said the Government was investing \u00a3100m to \u201cupgrade national resilience capabilities\u201d including buying equipment to tackle wildfires, such as off-road vehicles.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve worked closely with fire and rescue services and resilience partners to prepare for the increased risk of wildfires this summer,\u201d they added. \u201cWe\u2019re also trialling highly trained wildfire response teams, placing them in hotspots across England.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The National Trust was forced to find a helicopter to help fight the huge wildfire that has devastated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":722776,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[556,6445,59,57,58,4918,50,74408,56,54,55,8948],"class_list":["post-722775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-climate-change","tag-climate-crisis","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-national-trust","tag-news","tag-suffolk","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wildfires"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=722775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/722776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=722775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=722775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=722775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}