INFERNO PERIL OF BARBIES
BARBECUE fans have been warned not to cook outdoors in public spaces after a disposable barbie was blamed for a massive blaze at a nature reserve.
More than 90 firefighters took 24 hours to quell the fire at Studland in Dorset, which started on Friday.
Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service said: “Please DO NOT have campfires, bonfires or use barbecues in the countryside.”
Charred
Police were forced to evacuate holidaymakers from Studland beach and later said a used disposable
BBQ was found.
No one was injured in the blaze but a 200-metre square of heathland was completely charred.
Firefighters also found an unexploded piece
36C of ammunition thought to date from the Second
World War on the scorched heathland.
Residents were warned to expect a loud bang after a bomb squad was called.
Weeks of hot weather have dried out heathland, with crews facing an increase in call-outs.
Twelve fire engines were called to a residential area in Creswell, Worksop, Notts.
Monster
Some 50 homes had to be evacuated and around 60 hectares of field was on fire but no one was injured. The cause of the fire is unknown.
Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service also faced embankment fires beside a railway in Matlock, and near Junction 26 of the M1.
Around 35 firefighters battled a two-hectare blaze at the Leyton Flats wildlife reserve in Waltham Forest, east London. There were no injuries.
Elsewhere, firefighters have halted the spread of a monster blaze in south-west France’s Gironde region.