Firefighters attended 291 grass fires in Caerphilly County Borough in just a single month this summer.
The figure represents an increase of 561% for July this year, compared to the same month last year, when there were just 44 fires.
South Wales Fire and Rescue Service received 1,069 calls to incidents involving grass fires across the ten local authority areas it covers during July with an unprecedented prolonged period of warm weather.
At the latest, South Wales Fire and Rescue Authority meeting, it was revealed that the number of grass fires attended in south Wales from May to July increased from 385 in 2017 to 1,549 in 2018 – a rise of more than 300%
South Wales Fire and Rescue Service’s chief fire officer, Huw Jakeway, said the figures reveal how challenging the summer had been.
He said: “Despite heightened activity on 999 call handling and incident management due to extreme weather conditions, our firefighters and joint control staff faced this challenge, over many weeks, with the highest standard of professionalism.
“I am proud of the hard work and commitment they have all demonstrated while continuing to keep our communities safe.
“While the financial cost of tackling such a situation is evident, it is important that we also consider the wider impact and cost to our communities.
“The cost attributed to the destruction of land, the tragic loss of wildlife we have witnessed and the subsequent impact on local eco systems, is not so
easy for us to estimate. What is clear is that the impact has been devastating.
“The tactics employed by our specialist wildfire teams and wildfire officers and the use of burn teams and specialist all-terrain vehicles has allowed us to deal with the large number of wildfires effectively.
“However, while our crews are committed to dealing with these unnecessary incidents they are unavailable to attend other types of incidents such as house fires or RTCs (road traffic collisions) and therefore appliances from other locations are having to be mobilised.
“Deliberate fire setting is a crime. The impact is dramatic and lives can be put at risk. We all share a responsibility to report incidents of deliberate fire setting. Working together we can continue to protect our communities and make South Wales safer.”
Reporting by the Local Democracy Reporting Service.