Firefighters hit back at alert critics
An alert warning of high wildfire risks was sent out across the country last Friday
Wiltshire firefighters have hit back at criticism of a national emergency alert warning about wildfires.
The UK Government sent a rare Emergency Alert to mobile phones across England and Wales at 7:01pm on Friday 14 August, warning that there was a “very high risk of wildfires nationally.”
The alert told residents, landowners and visitors not to do anything likely to start a fire.
It was the first alert Swindon and Wiltshire residents have received since the service was last tested in September 2025.
Critics argued that a nationwide England-and-Wales warning about avoiding barbecues, fires and fireworks did not meet the intended “danger to life” threshold for Emergency Alerts.
They said it should have been targeted to areas facing an imminent fire threat, rather than sent to tens of millions of devices.
Some opposition politicians and right-wing commentators warned that routine or overly broad use could undermine public confidence and prompt people to disable alerts, reducing their usefulness in a genuine sudden-onset emergency.
Former MP, now GB News presenter Jacob Rees-Mogg condemned the wildfire warning as an example of the “nanny state”, arguing that the government was unnecessarily interfering in people’s lives by using the severe-alert system to tell people not to use barbecues.
He then published a video on social media showing people how to switch off Emergency Alerts on their phones.
And some recipients described being alarmed by the loud, siren-like tone, particularly because it arrived without prominent advance notice. Some said they initially assumed there was an immediate major incident.
But the Fire Brigades Union Dorset and Wiltshire said the wildfire alert was necessary “because the circumstances were extraordinary.”
Firefighters pointed out that 1,000 wildfires have already been recorded in 2026 – exceeding the previous annual record of 1,017 set in 2025.
The union said its members are already being deployed for prolonged periods to tackle major incidents, with crews and resources being moved across regions to maintain the response.
“The FBU has been warning about this for years,” said a spokesperson.
“Claims that the alert was simply government scaremongering” ignore the reality faced by firefighters.
“Some news outlets have focused heavily on public irritation, people supposedly switching off emergency alerts and arguments about whether the system was “misused”.
“But ask the firefighters who were actually standing in front of these fires whether the risk was imaginary – it wasn’t.”
The union is calling on government to better fund fire services.
“You cannot ask firefighters to deal with an increasing number of extreme weather emergencies while simultaneously cutting the resources available to respond to them,” said the spokesperson.
“If governments are serious about protecting the public from wildfires, floods and increasingly extreme weather, they need to properly fund the people who will actually be there when things go wrong.”
The FBU repeated its call for more firefighters, more fire engines, specialist equipment, and better training.