A committee has urged London Fire Brigade to assess whether it has sufficient resources to deal with extreme heatwaves after last month's devastating fires.

The brigade faced its busiest day since World War Two on July 19, when temperatures reached the high-30s in celsius.

There were more than 1,100 incidents across the capital, including grass fires that tore through the village of Wennington and part of Dagenham where dozens of homes were destroyed.

LFB has published its draft community risk management plan for 2023-2029, where the brigade says it sets out its assessment of risk and what it plans to do to reduce and respond to that.

In its plan, the brigade includes urban flooding as an "extraordinary" risk - east London was hit by flash floods last July that closed stations and roads.

It has vowed to work with communities to help them prepare for incidents like flooding, improve its support to help people recover quicker from "hazardous events" and improve its community engagement.

But London Assembly's fire, resilience and emergency planning committee has recommended that LFB assesses in its final plan whether it has "adequate resources to deal with the impacts of extreme heatwaves".

Committee chair Anne Clarke AM said: "The draft plan includes details on the steps the brigade is taking to mitigate the impact of flooding, following lessons learned from extreme urban flooding in parts of our city last summer.

"While this is welcome, we strongly urge that the final plan takes a similar approach on dealing with the impacts of extreme hot weather.

Romford Recorder: Anne Clarke AMAnne Clarke AM (Image: www.jamesojenkins.co.uk)

"The Met Office has advised that extreme heatwaves are likely to become more prevalent because of climate change, meaning grass fires like those witnessed this summer could become more frequent.

"The brigade must ensure it has adequate training and policies in place to appropriately respond to the threat of wildfires and ensure it is protecting Londoners from heatwave hell."

A spokesperson for the LFB admitted it must adapt to climate changes and the challenges posed by new "extremes of weather".

They added: “We are constantly looking at developing our equipment and procedures to meet all the new challenges that we face.

“We will learn lessons from the recent intense grass fires, evaluate our response and put in place any additional training that will help to keep Londoners and our firefighters safe."

The spokesperson said it is bidding to protect the environment by reducing its carbon dioxide emissions by 60 per cent by 2025 against 1990 levels.