WILDWATCH UK The fire & water brief — risk, cost and the politics of a drying country UK · Fire season 2026
Tool · Best-effort community data

Your area’s fire profile

Enter your postcode to see what fuel sits around you — moorland, woodland, scrub — how much water is available for firefighting, where the nearest fire station is, and a simple vulnerability indicator for this time of year.

Also check if a hosepipe ban is in force for your area — Otter shows your water company, current restriction status and local water-level outlook for free.

Method

How this works — and its limits

Your postcode is geocoded with Photon (OpenStreetMap). A 3 mi circle around you is searched in OpenStreetMap for fuel types (moorland, heath, woodland, scrub, grassland, farmland), and a wider 9 mi circle for water sources (lakes, reservoirs, rivers, canals) and fire stations.

The vulnerability score blends three things: what fuel dominates your area (peat moorland scores highest), the season (May–Sep is the dry window), and how far the nearest fire station is. It is a transparent, qualitative indicator — not a forecast.

  • 1GeocodeYour postcode becomes a point on the map via OpenStreetMap / Photon.
  • 2ProfileA 3 mi radius is queried for fuel types; a 9 mi radius for water sources and fire stations.
  • 3ScoreFuel dominance + dry-season month + station distance are blended into a 0–100 index.
The honest caveat

Community-mapped data is best effort

OpenStreetMap land-use coverage is incomplete. Many areas are unmapped, and mapped features can be outdated or approximate. This tool is not an official fire risk assessment and must not be relied on for safety decisions.

  • For a live fire, call 999 and follow your local fire service.
  • Official UK fire and weather information comes from your regional fire authority and the Met Office.
  • A ‘low’ score here does not mean there is no fire risk — it means the mapped fuel mix looks manageable.