At the height of the worst wildfire season in a decade, Kate Humble and Simon Reeve travel to New South Wales, Australia to discover how the 70,000-strong Rural Firefighting Service contend with as many as 100 fires a day.

Kate visits their HQ in Sydney to investigate the sophisticated rapid response system designed to kick into action the second a fire is reported, while Simon joins a crew racing to stamp out a grass fire threatening a nearby town and joins a team trekking through remote bushland to extinguish spot fires started by lightning.

In this first programme of two, Simon and Kate explore why wildfires in Australia are so frequent and hard to control, unlocking the surprising secrets of fire behaviour with leading scientists working to help those on the frontline. Show less