London's firefighters had their 'busiest day' since World War II due to the record-shattering heatwave, mayor says

• London's mayor said Tuesday was the fire service's busiest day since World War II.
• On a normal day, he told Sky News, the London Fire Brigade gets around 300 to 350 calls. On Tuesday, it got more than 2,600.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan told Sky News Wednesday that Tuesday was the busiest day the fire service had seen since World War II.

"Yesterday was the busiest day for the fire service in London since the Second World War," Khan told Sky News, as a record-breaking heatwave struck the country at the beginning of the week.

Khan offered a comparison: On a normal day, he told Sky News, the London Fire Brigade gets around 300 to 350 calls. A busy day gets 500 calls. On Tuesday, it got more than 2,600.

Additionally, he said there were more than a dozen fires in the city that required 30 engines each while 41 properties were destroyed in London Tuesday.

This prompted the city to call it a "major incident."

"We simply can't cope," Khan said in a Tuesday appearance on Sky News of the multitude of fires that popped up in London, which he said were a "direct result" of the heatwave.

According to the Sky News broadcast, the London Fire Brigade said they sent 15 engines and 100 firefighters to a massive fire that was ablaze in Wennington, London.

Temperatures as of Wednesday have dropped significantly in the UK, but peaked at 40.3 degrees Celcius (or 104.5 degrees Fahrenheit) Tuesday, making Tuesday the hottest day ever in the country.