Met Office fire severity index warns risk “exceptional”

July 19th 2022 saw the UK’s highest ever recorded temperature of 40c. With this heatwave came a deluge of fires breaking out across the country. Some of these fires destroyed properties, train lines and caused a major risk to life. The strain on the fire service was immense through the sheer amount of fires and a reported lack of personnel.

As the heatwave began to take effect, the London fire service saw an incredible demand for their help. “It was the busiest day since World War II.” Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London told news outlets. He further explained that on a normal day the London fire service receives 350 calls, 500 on a busy day. July 19th saw 2,600 calls. This resulted in the destruction by fire of 41 properties and 16 firefighters injured.

Since then, the dry weather has not abated with hosepipe bans now in place across many parts of the south-east of England. With the extended dry weather and the second heat wave of the summer underway, the Met Office’s fire severity index (FSI), an assessment of how severe a fire could be should one break-out, is “Very High” for large areas of England and Wales and will become “Exceptional” for a large part of England this weekend.

With this “Exceptional” assessment level comes extra risk to people and property. Risk not only because of the assessment level but also because of the strain that will be put on our fire services and their ability to react to all potential incidents. Triton Group companies, Triton Waking Watch and Triton Risk are able to help businesses mitigate this risk for public sector, commercial and domestic properties.

Triton Waking Watch is a market leader in protecting people that live or work in buildings that have been built with potentially flammable cladding. Triton Waking Watch provide specially trained fire wardens and services that quite literally let people go about their daily lives safe in the knowledge they and their properties are being protected. Their Waking Watch services are in action in every part of the UK and are fundamental to the ongoing protection of people and at risk property.

Triton Waking Watch are recognised by the London Fire Brigade for their attention to detail to the communities and spaces they protect. Triton wardens are supported by Triton’s 24/7 control room. Using live geo-locating data tracking wardens on-site, Triton control room is on hand to respond to any eventuality.

For protecting high risk transport and industrial infrastructure, Triton Risk provides safety, security and emergency response services to companies across the UK. From oil and gas to utilities, from telecoms to power stations and transport, Triton Risk is skilled in assessing risk, mitigating risk and providing expert response services should an incident happen.

Triton Risk’s highly skilled people have years of experience protecting critical infrastructure and business. Their fire engineers and consultants focus on their core driver that prevention in the first place is the best way to protect people, property and business continuity.

However, should the worst happen, Triton Risk provides fire and emergency medical services, all of which are highly efficient, tailored and cost-effective and on stand-by to respond quickly with high levels of skill to any incident.

Lauren Paver, Triton Group’s Commercial Director commented. “With this current extreme dry spell and daily temperatures, comes extra risk to businesses from the potential of fire break-outs that spread quickly and our fire services being stretched to the max. All of which points to the need for extra vigilance from all of us and for businesses to assess their situation with regards to mitigating the risk of fire and how they are able to respond if fire should break-out.”

Lauren continued. “With Triton Waking Watch and Triton Risk, I know the Triton Group is in a strong position to help businesses protect the people that rely on them and their assets. We are UK market leaders in the Waking Watch services we provide in buildings with potentially flammable cladding and Triton Risk are very well placed to help businesses mitigate the risk of fire and medical emergencies and be prepared should the worst happen.

The Met Office’s fire severity index assessment looks like reaching exceptional this weekend, which brings greater risk to life and property. However, with the increasing days of warm and dry weather and other well documented risk factors ahead, businesses need to be confident they have the right people and processes in place to prevent incidents and respond should one occur. Triton Group is here to help with our Waking Watch and risk services or a combination of both.”

Triton Waking Watch is able to deploy their waking watch services onsite in the UK within 4 hours.

Call 01937 229114 today.