{"id":810884,"date":"2026-10-23T00:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T00:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/810884\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T00:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T00:10:09","slug":"uk-to-draft-in-military-aircraft-to-fight-wildfires-burnham-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/810884\/","title":{"rendered":"UK to draft in military aircraft to fight wildfires, Burnham says"},"content":{"rendered":"

RAF Chinook crews have already helped respond, external<\/a> to wildfires in Cyprus.<\/p>\n

In addition to military aircraft, the government said it would also spend \u00a345m on wildfire-specific personal protective equipment for firefighters on the ground.<\/p>\n

It is lighter than current firefighting equipment which is designed for fires in buildings and not meant to be worn for a long time, the government added.<\/p>\n

Ministers are also pledging a \u00a325m scheme from April 2027 to April 2029 to restore dried-out peatlands in England so they are natural firebreaks, and financial support for farmers to fireproof their land such as by digging ponds.<\/p>\n

“The government will also look at tougher local restrictions or product bans to stop people starting fires when the risk is high,” a briefing ahead of the summit said, following a temporary ban on disposable BBQs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Burnham will meet fire chiefs, local leaders and experts from tech companies at the summit.<\/p>\n

“I stood in Stourbridge and watched families lose everything,” he said on Thursday, recounting the night of a wildfire that destroyed 19 homes in the West Midlands in August.<\/p>\n

“I will never forget it. Our firefighters were heroes that day, but heroes shouldn’t have to fight with one hand tied behind their backs.”<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, MPs on the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee said there were weaknesses in the UK’s wildfire preparedness<\/a>, including access to aerial firefighting resources, securing water supplies during major incidents and coordinating resources at a national level.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RAF Chinook crews have already helped respond, external to wildfires in Cyprus. In addition to military aircraft, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":810885,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-810884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810884","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=810884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/810885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=810884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=810884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=810884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}