“Yesterday was the busiest day for the London fire service since World War II,” said London Mayor Sadiq Khan, according to the BBC. Khan’s reference goes back to “the blitz” which describes the massive German airstrikes against Britain and especially London more than 80 years ago. After weeks of bombing, the attack reached a climax in late December 1940 when 1,500 fires broke out in the city of London. 2600 emergency calls to the fire service Mayor Khan says the fire service in London received 2600 emergency calls on Tuesday, while they handled several fires. To put the number perspective: – Normally we get 350 emergency calls a day, on a busy weekday we can get up to 500. Yesterday the fire service had over 2600 calls, says Khan. 16 firefighters in the London Fire Brigade are said to have suffered heat-related injuries. Two of them were taken to hospital, but have since been discharged, according to the BBC. This fire ravaged right up to a motorway in East London. On Tuesday, it was measured over 40 degrees in several places in London. At Heathrow Airport, outside London, the temperature was 40.2 degrees. This is the first time a temperature above 40 degrees has been recorded in the UK. The record was set in the town of Coningsby in Lincolnshire, with 40.3 degrees. DRAMATIC: Smoke rises from a high-rise block in east London on Wednesday. Photo: TWITTER / @ LORDMIKEEDWARDS / Reuters On Wednesday, temperatures were lower in England, around 25 degrees. Lower summer temperatures are also expected in the next few days. “Absolute hell” In Wennington, east London, around 100 firefighters worked on a fire that destroyed several homes. A firefighter in the London Fire Brigade who was at the scene is said to have described it as an “absolute hell”, when, among other things, several terraced houses, four other homes and five cars were destroyed by the fire. The mayor has advised Londoners not to grill in parks or private gardens, to limit the risk of more fires. The heat and the dry conditions created “the perfect scenario” for fires to spread quickly over grasslands and forests, according to the mayor. The speed at which the fires spread must have been a special challenge for the fire crews. BURN: Black landscape remains after a fire in the village of Wennington, east of London, Wednesday 20 July 2022. Photo: Aaron Chown / AP Before Tuesday was over, Sky News reported that already 41 properties have been destroyed, and the fire brigade in the capital states on Wednesday that they handled 15 large fires and a large number of forest fires and grass fires. Elsewhere in England, a number of homes, forests and buildings have been destroyed by fire. In recent weeks, forest fires have affected large parts of Europe and especially Spain. The hot, dry weather, which hit England hard this week, has been favorable for the course of the fire.
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