After summer of wildfires across the South, new UK alert service launches

A new UK-wide wildfire alert service has been launched following a summer of heightened wildfire risk and major outdoor fires across southern England.

Wildfire Watch UK aims to bring together information which is currently spread across fire and rescue services, satellite detection systems and other sources, giving people a clearer picture of wildfire activity near their homes, businesses and other locations.

The free service allows users to monitor places that matter to them and receive automatic alerts if wildfire activity is detected or reported nearby.

Its launch comes during what has been described as a record-breaking year for wildfires in England and Wales, with the number of incidents in 2026 already surpassing the previous annual record set in 2025.

Conditions have also been unusually dry. England and Wales recorded their driest July since records began in 1836, according to the Met Office, while drought conditions have affected large parts of the country.

Example of what users in the South will see - Credit: Wildfirewatch.uk

Wildfire Watch UK was created by North Wales software developer and technologist Nathan Green after he discovered while on holiday that a fast-moving wildfire was heading towards his own home and glamping business.

Nathan lives off-grid near Corwen and runs an eco-retreat centre and glamping site.

He said: “It was an extremely alarming way to discover there was a wildfire heading towards my home.

“I was at Prague airport when the messages started arriving. Friends started asking me whether I was OK, and initially I didn’t even know what they were talking about. The person looking after my home, business and animals didn’t know either. Luckily the fire changed direction. It was scary. This happened in March — hardly a time of year when most people would expect a wildfire to be threatening their home!

“Once I started looking into it, I realised the information wasn’t necessarily absent — it was scattered all over the place. Different fire services publish information in different ways, if at all. Satellite systems can detect fires from space, local media and communities may know about incidents, but there isn’t one simple UK-wide picture for somebody who just wants to know: is there a wildfire near me? Am I and my property safe?

“Wildfire Watch grew out of trying to solve that problem.”

The service combines multiple sources of information, including near-real-time satellite fire detections and information published by UK fire and rescue services.

Rather than simply displaying incidents on a map, users can set locations including their home, business, family members’ homes or holiday destinations.

The system then processes wildfire information and relates it geographically to those locations, alerting users when relevant activity is detected or reported nearby.

Nathan said the changing wildfire picture in Britain meant the issue could no longer be regarded as something confined to hotter countries.

He said: “Wildfire is no longer something we can think of as somebody else’s problem in southern Europe, Australia or California.

“We already have extraordinary technology capable of detecting heat and fires from satellites hundreds of kilometres above us. We have fire services publishing incident information and communities sharing what they’re seeing on the ground.

“The missing piece is bringing those things together in a way ordinary people can actually use — and alerting them when it matters to them.”

Wildfire Watch UK stresses that it is not an emergency service and does not replace official warnings or instructions from the emergency services.

The service remains under development, with plans to expand the number of UK fire and rescue services and other wildfire information sources it monitors.

Wildfire Watch UK is available free at https://wildfirewatch.uk/

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