The fire alarm is ringing
On Friday night, I was watching Terry Gilliam's 'The Fisher King' with my son when my phone started making a very loud noise, and an emergency alert came through. It was another reminder of the serious situation we are in as we have many parts of the SE which have been without rain for more than six weeks. David Shukman on LinkedIn explored an area which has been much in the news over the recent weeks. He has written a book called 'The Response', which was published in May 2026. It focusses on fires and floods. There has been a lot of coverage of wildfires in recent days - in the UK and across Europe - in France, Belgium, Greece and Croatia amongst others. There has also been some discussion over the term 'wildfires' itself, such as this piece by Doug Specht in The Conversation. 19 houses were destroyed in the Stourbridge area of Birmingham. The High Fenns area of Belgium is on fire. People have died in several of these fires, including the Greek ones. C...
