Firefighters and the public were knowingly put at risk during this year's wildfires due to chronic underfunding, a union has said. Those working on the ground and in the South Wales control centre said the fires were relentless with injuries "commonplace" for crews. The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) said firefighters were climbing hills in unsuitable boots and non-breathable layers used for house fires due to not having enough kit, and there was a "real risk to the public" if immediate action was not taken.
The Welsh government said it did not provide core funding but "recognise the concerns raised and are clear that we need to do all we can to reduce the risk of wildfires". Sean Cayford, a firefighter in Bridgend, said crews were told in mid-August that there were no pumps or fire appliances available across the brigade's entire region. "I've never heard that before but that was heard again later in the wildfire season.
That was startling," he said. "One particular day we were at an incident on top of Tredegar mountain and as we looked around the landscape we could see in the region of six or seven other category three wildfires, the most serious type of wildfires, on the horizon, in every direction you looked." Cayford said even with help from other brigades from all over the UK, they "still didn't have enough" firefighters. "We were stretched so thinly," he said.
"It has an increasingly destructive effect on the morale of our firefighters. "It's very difficult to be at a wildfire incident in excess of eight or 10 or 12 hours and not get injured to some degree." He said colleagues had sustained lower limb injuries and heat illness, with many still unable to work. Gemma Thomas, who works in the control centre, said the average number of calls is usually 200-300 but on their busiest day this summer they had almost 2,000.
"It was just relentless in there," she said. "There were times where we were unable to fulfil the requests that were coming from the incidents. "We are the first point of contact for somebody who is having potentially the worst day of their life.
"It was so stressful, mentally draining, that you're getting home from work absolutely shattered to think right I've got to go back and do it all again tomorrow." Thomas said there were times when staff needed to take breaks "one at a time for 10 minutes just to get people out of the room". "People were getting to the point where they were just shattered in work, shattered at home," she said, adding there was no work-life balance because they needed to use free time to rest. Thomas said support from management was "phenomenal" and "even the firefighters on the ground were understanding how stretched we were in the control room".
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