Used disposable barbecue blamed as 90 firefighters fight nature reserve blaze
PEOPLE are being warned not to cook outdoors in public spaces after a disposable barbecue sparked a massive blaze at a nature reserve.
More than 90 firefighters fought for 24 hours to stop the fire at Studland, Dorset, which started on Friday.
Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue said: “Please DO NOT have campfires, bonfires or use barbecues in the countryside.”
Police were forced to evacuate holiday-makers from Studland beach and later said a used disposable barbecue had been found.
No one was injured in the blaze, but a 200m by 200m area of heathland was left completely charred.
Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service warned that reignition was possible.
Dorset police said firefighters also found an unexploded piece of ammunition thought to date back to the Second World War on the heathland.
Residents were told to expect a loud bang after a bomb squad was called.
Weeks of hot weather have caused an increase in callouts to the fire service.
Twelve fire engines attended a residential area in Creswell, Worksop. Some 50 homes were evacuated after around 60 hectares of field caught fire, but there were no reports of injury. The cause is unknown. Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service also faced embankment fires beside a railway in Matlock, and near J26 of the M1. And around 35 firefighters battled a twohectare blaze at the Leyton Flats wildlife reserve in Waltham Forest, east London.
Elsewhere in the world, firefighters have halted the spread of a “monster” blaze in south-west France.
The blaze has ravaged forests in the country’s Gironde region since Tuesday, forcing 10,000 people to evacuate their homes. Hundreds of firefighters are also fighting fires in Brittany and in the Jura region in the east.