We have had wildfires this year because things have been so dry for so long, the hot air has just sucked the moisture out of the landscape.
It leaves vegetation dead, dry and needing just a small spark to erupt into flame.
On Cannock Chase, I spent the day with Staffordshire County Council rangers, as they showed me around the black, scorched earth left behind after the fires that took place there.
I saw pictures of dead adders along with cracked and burnt eggs belonging to ground-nesting birds.
It is not just wildlife affected by them – the ash from the fire is changing the chemistry of the soil itself.
It is much more nutrient-rich and that is bad news for this rare lowland heathland, where the traditional plants prefer poorer quality soil.
Already green shoots of bracken are bursting through the blackened earth and that will crowd out the traditional heather, bilberry and cowberry.
