Colin Brown from the Fire Brigades Union reports on what it feels like to fight a burning Arthur’s Seat and calls for investment into Fire and Rescue Services to prepare for increasing wildfires and the effects of climate change.
On 25 August firefighters gathered at the Glasgow necropolis to remember the 7 firefighters who lost their lives at Kilbirnie Street on 25 August 1972, in one of the country’s deadliest post-war fires. This annual memorial gives pause to reflect on the sacrifice those firefighters made, but also on what Scotland and the UK now ask of their firefighters in what looks certain to be a future of changed risks, blighted by increased extreme weather events including devastating wildfires.
Across Scotland and the UK firefighters have been at the fore front of driving down trends on domestic dwelling fires (house fires) through safety initiatives and relentless pressure from the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) demanding improvements to building and furniture safety, legislation, and training. This success in reducing fires and loss has illogically led repeated governments and, in many cases, Chief Fire Officers to cut budgets and enforce cuts to firefight er numbers. Between 2010 – 2024 the UK has lost over 12000 fire fighters (21%). Since 2013, Scotland has seen 1239 firefighter posts slashed leaving frontline appliances and specialist resources uncrewed and unavailable to respond to emergencies.
These cuts have come whilst large-scale weather-related emergencies have increased across the globe. Publicly, attitudes across the UK have been sympathetic for the plight of others, whilst taking misplaced quiet comfort that these events happen in other countries like America, Greece, Australia, Spain, Turkey, but not in the UK and not at the scale others have seen. Now when fire does take hold here, the emergency service we rely on has suffered two decades worth of cuts.
Western Europe has just experienced the hottest June on record with temperatures over 3°C higher than normal. Throughout the summer of 2026 the UK has declared multiple heatwaves, much of England is in drought and we have experienced some of the most significant and protracted wildfires on record across England, Scot land and Wales. In Stourbridge in the West Midlands 19 homes were destroyed, a further 13 damaged and 20 people hospitalised as fires spread from a field engulfing over 500 acres. Chief Fire Officers in the south of England were forced to make calls to fire services as far north as Scotland for support to tackle wildfires.
In Scotland, whilst Arthur’s Seat burned on the doorstep of the Scottish Parliament, over 500 firefighters and hundreds of volunteers from across Scotland battled for four weeks to control the fire raging across the Cairngorms that forced the evacuation of areas around Glenmore and Nethy Bridge, burning through around 25 square kilometres of some of Scotland’s most important and scenic landscapes.
Whether people believe human activity is driving increased global temperatures or not, the reality of climate change is on our doorstep now and as a country we need to sit up and take note.
As Europe, America and other countries have learned, when wildfires begin to encroach on populated urban areas, it’s already too late. So, what of Scotland and how we as a country prepare for and respond to a future that looks almost certain to be blighted by an increasing number, scale, and severity of wildfires burning ever closer to where we live and work?
For many years the FBU have been at the forefront of calls for greater investment in Fire and Rescue Services. In 2023 the FBU published Scorched: Firefighters and Resilience to Wildfires. This report highlighted the impact of cuts and how fire services across the UK were woefully under prepared for the increasing scale, ferocity and regularity of wildfires.
On the 24 August 2026 Scotland’s Chief Fire Officer (CFO) is sued an open letter commending the work of all that were involved in firefighting and supporting responders to the Cairngorms wild fire, calling for “collective action to strengthen Scotland’s wildfire prevention and preparedness, following a series of devastating incidents at home and across the world”. In his statement CFO Stevens highlights the need for prevention and preparedness to sit at the heart of a national approach to preventing and responding to wildfires.
Much of CFO Steven’s statement echoes calls from the FBU for a national conversation on how Scotland prepares and responds to wildfires. A genuine national strategy must begin with open, honest dialogue in what is often a divisive debate. The often polarised views between grouse and sporting estate managers, who champion muirburn as a means of reducing fuel loading, and conservationists and those who believe rewilding Scotland’s often ecologically barren landscape is a better long-term strategy to prevent wildfires, will be difficult to reconcile. The one agenda that all parties share is the desire to prevent the devastation and risk to life and habitat that comes with large scale wildfires.
The Fire Brigades Union have called for a national conversation between the Scottish Government, The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and the FBU before bringing in other parties. Funding for the fire service must be a top priority. To equip all of Scotland’s firefighters with light weight PPE will cost in excess of £2 million. When the FBU demand increased funding for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, it isn’t just about demanding fair pay for our members, it’s about securing their safety to operate in some of the most hostile environments.
Scotland needs this conversation to start now, in preparation for next year and years to come. For all the talk, recognition and commendations that will undoubtedly come from politicians for all wildfire responders, their words will be meaningless without recognising their cuts have savaged the Fire and Rescue Service. They must now listen to those on the frontline demanding genuine real terms investment to build a Scottish Fire and Rescue Service that is truly fit for the risks we face today, and those that will clearly form a significant part of our future