swathe of the country. and it was drought combined with heat that helped the uk fires, like this one in wennington, spread so quickly. the met office says southern england had its driestjuly in records that began in 1836. i've come to the fire station in wennington to speak to its commander, graham beers. graham, you've been in the fire service for almost 20 years. have you ever had a day quite like the 19th ofjuly? no, 19th ofjuly was just something out of the ordinary. i've been to many grass fires within my 19—year career but the 19th ofjuly, it was just something, you know, that i've never experienced before in my career. so, here in wennington, talk me through what happened. i was in another severe incident near rainham but i was getting reports that a fire had broken out in wennington and it had actually started affecting the properties. i then attended, went in to see the devastation and one of the things that, actually, i was very shocked