Ten Engines Battle Overnight Wildfire in Tunbridge Wells as Second Blaze Hits Yalding

West Kent had a taste of exactly what this month's national wildfire alert was warning against, with two significant fires breaking out within a day of each other over the weekend. The larger of the two, on North Farm Lane in Tunbridge Wells, drew one of the biggest fire responses West Kent has seen this summer: ten fire engines, a bulk water carrier and two all-terrain vehicles, battling a field alight through the night.

Crews were called to North Farm Lane at 8.42pm on Friday and were still working the scene into the small hours, with a final update logged at 12.33am confirming the fire was out. That wasn't quite the end of it, though — crews returned to the site at 6.30am on Saturday specifically to check for hotspots, a precaution that speaks to how stubborn a well-established grass or field fire can be even after the visible flames are dealt with. There were no reported injuries, and the cause has not yet been established.

The second fire broke out the following afternoon in Yalding, near Maidstone, on Hampstead Lane. Four fire engines and a utility terrain vehicle attended, with crews using wildfire beaters, hose-reel jets and a fogging unit to bring it under control between 1.49pm and 4.47pm on Saturday. Again, nobody was hurt — but this one comes with a detail that changes the story: Kent Fire and Rescue Service believes the cause was deliberate, rather than an accident of the kind that's dominated this summer's wildfire numbers.

Both fires sit inside a much bigger pattern that's already been building across West Kent this summer. Kent Fire and Rescue Service says it has attended more than 130 accidental grass fires since the start of July alone, before either of this weekend's incidents is even counted — and it's exactly that pressure on crews and water supplies that sat behind the Government's first-ever national wildfire alert earlier this month. A deliberately-started fire on top of that backdrop is a different order of problem to an accidental one: it's not solved by less hosepipe use or more caution around barbecues, and it will likely mean a police as well as a fire investigation into what happened at Yalding. Source: Kent Fire and Rescue Service