AUSTERITY-HIT fire services across Britain are “completely unprepared” for the risks posed by the latest heatwave, the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) warned today.

Human-induced climate change is forcing firefighters to deal with increasingly extreme weather events, but a fifth of the workforce has been cut since the Tories came to power in 2010, FBU national officer Riccardo La Torre said.

His stark intervention came as the Met Office introduced amber heat warnings for many parts of England and Wales, saying that there is an “exceptional” risk of wildfires this weekend as temperatures soar to 35°C once again.

Forecasters raised the Fire Severity Index to exceptional — the highest level — for Sunday over much of southern England and stretching as far west as Abergavenny in Wales.

A heat health alert has also been declared by the UK Health Security Agency, with experts advising people to look out for older people, those with existing health conditions and young children.

July’s heatwave, which saw Britain record temperatures of more than 40°C for the first time, caused wildfires nationwide, while firefighters in London declared their busiest period since World War II.

Mr La Torre told Sky News: “These are brutal, brutal fires to fight — the temperature that they burn at, the speed at which they spread at.

“The reality is we’ve been left completely unprepared to do that as a fire and rescue service.

“We’ve had over a fifth of the workforce cut since 2010. That’s over 11,500 firefighters cut. Yet we’re asking them to deal with these extreme weather events in increasing regularity and severity.

“Firefighters have been injured, firefighters have ended up in hospital, we’ve seen families lose their homes, we’ve seen businesses lost, infrastructure burn to the ground, because we simply can’t get to these fires quick enough.

“When we do, we simply don’t have the resources to deal with them adequately.”

Britain has recorded its driest first half of the year in decades and hot spells have left many areas facing looming drought, prompting hosepipe bans and warnings about the impact on agriculture, rivers and wildlife.

Earlier this week, the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology published a new analysis warning that low or even exceptionally low river flows and groundwater levels in southern England and Wales are likely to continue for the next three months.