Cumbria fire crews have performed better than most in recent analysis of wildfire preparedness across England and Wales - but currently have no drones to assist crews.
The Country, Land and Business Association (CLA) has called for urgent reform and funding for crews to tackle wildfires after their Freedom of Information (FOI) requests revealed half of fire services are missing basic wildfire kit.
The revelations found that over half of fire services had no wildfire PPE and almost half of those that responded failed to meet their target response time on average in 2025 and 2026.
A lack of PPE was not found in the case of Cumbria Fire & Rescue as the county has nine specialist wildfire teams with all staff receiving a basic level of wildfire training.
The FOI requests revealed that Cumbria Fire and Rescue had no drones (Image: Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service)
The revelations also found that Cumbrian crews' average response times over the last three years had been around the ten-minute mark, within their target of fifteen minutes.
However, the FOI request did reveal that the county had no drones, which the London Fire Brigade have said are "crucial" for surveying incidents from above.
Scott Cameron, Group Manager for Prevention and Protection at Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service, said: "Wildfires are an increasing risk and something we take extremely seriously in Cumbria."
He added: "Our expertise is recognised nationally too, with Cumbria firefighters deployed to support major wildfires elsewhere in the country, including in Derbyshire and Wales this summer, spending significant periods of time away from their families to keep other areas as well as Cumbria safe is something we're very proud of."
In one incident this year, Cumbrian crews did take 81 minutes to respond to a call, well over the fifteen-minute target.
Mr Cameron said: "Cumbria's size and geography mean some incidents can be on remote fells or moorland, miles from the nearest road, which has to be considered when looking at response times.
"Sometimes callers can be unclear on locations of incidents and we would urge them to use What3Words to help us respond faster."
The number of wildfires attended by fire crews in 2026 was significantly down, falling from 230 in 2025 to 96 so far this year.
This year's numbers are still above the 92 wildfires that were attended in 2024 but below the three years preceding that.
