A Suffolk firefighter has shared his experience of working on Tuesday, July 19 - the hottest day ever recorded in England.

The day also marked the first time in years that Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service declared a major incident after nearly 50 calls to open fires.

Paul Grimes, a crew manager at Newmarket Fire Station, said: "I haven't experienced anything like it in all my 20 years of working in the service. Days like that come once in a career."

%image(14468811, type="article-full", alt="Paul Grimes is the crew manager at Newmarket Fire Station.")

Having attended his first fire at 9am, Mr Grimes said the number of calls they received required the crew to jump from job to job, often without time to return to their station in between.

Their first job required them to cross the border to Cambridgeshire for a barn fire and they were called straight to another one at The National Stud back in Newmarket at midday.

They then briefly managed to return to the station before attending another field fire in Kennett at around 3pm.

%image(14468812, type="article-full", alt="Suffolk faces unique challenges as a predominantly rural county, with some large standing crop and field fires over recent days.")

As a full-time firefighter, Mr Grimes was meant to finish his shift at 6pm.

However, he also works as an on-call firefighter which means that the minute he returned home, he was called back out again to another incident - many of the on-call staff didn't finish until 11pm on Tuesday.

He added: "Our Suffolk firefighters were really pushed from pillar to post, but the sense of camaraderie between us was strong."

Chief fire officer for Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service Jon Lacey described the heatwave as an "incredibly demanding week" following a spike in incidents.

%image(14468813, type="article-full", alt="Chief fire officer for Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service Jon Lacey described the heatwave as an "incredibly demanding week" following a spike in incidents.")

He also detailed the additional challenges Suffolk faces as a predominantly rural county, with some large standing crop and field fires over recent days.

Mr Lacey said: "Fortunately, our management team put plans in place before the heatwave even began to enable us to have the resource ready to attend all incidents, while ensuring that the welfare of our staff was not compromised.

"This involved some colleagues with firefighting experience who are currently in other areas of the service, such as our Prevention and Protection teams, temporarily returning to frontline duties.

"We were also more reliant upon our on-call staff, and I would like to thank their employers for releasing them to us during our time of need."

Mr Grimes noted meeting firefighters from stations they wouldn't usually come into contact with and said: "We all just jumped in and went where we were told to go. Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire firefighters were all helping one another."

Mr Lacey also noted that the health and safety of their firefighters during the heatwave was a priority and Mr Grimes relayed how they are trained in recognising heat-related illness.

He said: "We don't have the luxury of wearing light clothes to keep cool as we have to be in full kit. We have our own personal understanding of how the heat affects us and we always look out for each other."

%image(14468814, type="article-full", alt="Data shows the UK is more likely to see prolonged periods of dry heat which helps fires to take hold.")

Despite attending an unprecedented number of incidents earlier this week, only three minor injuries were reported across the whole of the Suffolk Fire Service - two bee/wasp stings and one case of mild heat exhaustion.

Finally, Mr Lacey warned that data shows the UK is more likely to see prolonged periods of dry heat which helps fires to take hold.

People are encouraged to remain fire safety aware and Mr Grimes added: "Personally, I think it's all about education. People simply can't carry on as normal on days as hot as that. They need to think about mitigating their risk."

On a personal note, Mr Grimes wanted to note that he and his team are always incredibly grateful for the kind gestures made by members of the public.

For example, on Tuesday they were offered cold drinks and sandwiches while on call and they have even been presented with ice creams on the doorstep of the fire station in the past.