A major incident has been declared after 100 firefighters were called out to tackle a huge blaze raging on Dorset heathland.
The wildfire, which prompted 20 homes to be evacuated, measured around 1,000 metres by 800 metres on Saturday evening, with fire crews working through the night and into Sunday to contain the blaze.
The fire at Holt Heath, near Wimborne, spread rapidly due to windy conditions fanning the flames. All those who fled their homes on Saturday evening have now returned but residents have been advised to keep their doors and windows closed due to the dense smoke billowing from the site.
On Sunday morning, the fire service said that steady progress had been made through the night to suppress the spread of the fire - with around 69 hectares of land affected.
Seven pumps were still being used to spray water onto the blaze on Sunday morning, with the National Trust also helping the fire service create fire breaks. By 4pm, firefighters were still tackling the fire and road closures were still in place.
A second heath fire, which affected 21 hectares of land at Newton Heath near Swanage, is also still burning. Firefighters have been tackling that blaze since last Sunday.
Assistant Chief Fire Officer Darren Langdown said on Saturday: “We have declared a major incident both due to the size of the fire at Holt Heath, and also the impact of this and Newton Heath on our overall availability of resources.
“We are extremely grateful to our neighbouring services for the support they are giving us, and I can only praise all of our staff who are working so hard in extremely arduous conditions to bring these fires under control.”
He added: “I would ask the public to help us by staying away from the affected areas; the fire at Holt Heath, in particular, is spreading rapidly and anyone trying to see what’s going on could be cut off very easily. We would also ask photographers not to fly drones near the fire, as we are using drones provided by Wessex Rescue to help us direct our firefighting.”
One dog walker Marcus Lastra, from Ringwood, recounted his horror at coming across the huge blaze.
He told Bournemouth Echo that he was walking his dog near Holt Heath when he noticed smoke rising in the distance. He said it had soon grown into a huge fire, describing the experience as “a dog walk turns into a horror movie”.
He added: “Because it’s an open area, the flames spread very quickly in the wind. In those few moments before the fire brigade got there, it had really take hold.
“They started spraying parts of it, but then another section caught fire and it just spread and spread. There was mayhem on the main road because people were stopping to take pictures”.
Camper Ben Murphy told local media that he decided to leave his campsite near Three Legged Cross, around two miles from the fire, when he caught sight of the smoke.
He said: “We were there during lunch time...It just got so much worse so quickly, you could tell it was serious straight away. You just don’t expect to see something like that. You could see literally in seconds a huge cloud of smoke”.
