DUNWICH: Firefighters in eastern England were on Thursday battling a “difficult and dangerous” wildfire which has devastated around 100 hectares (245 acres) of heathland and prompted the evacuation of some residents and visitors.
Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service said 18 fire engines and more than 100 firefighters faced “challenging conditions” tackling the blaze at Dunwich Heath, near England’s east coast.
It declared a major incident on Wednesday after the fire erupted earlier in the day and spread to threaten local properties including a holiday park for caravans, leading to evacuations.
The wildfire follows a period of exceptionally dry and hot weather, which has left Wales and more than half of England in drought and contributed to wildfires breaking out in different places.
Jon Lacey, the chief fire officer for Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service, said this blaze was one of the largest he could remember in the sprawling rural county northeast of London.
“It is a difficult fire because (it’s) so widespread and the resources are so widespread,” he told the press conference. “You can understand that that is difficult and dangerous for firefighters.” Some residents who have been evacuated were being supported at a rest centre, while many more had self-evacuated, the fire service said.
Westleton resident Lesley Abery said she had woken up in the night worried about the fires and looked out of the window. “It was a sea of red. It was all red along the horizon ... it’s just horrific”.
The wildfire site is less than 10 miles (16 kilometres) away from nuclear power station Sizewell B and the construction site for new power station Sizewell C. Although the Sizewell B was an area of concern the fire was not currently expected to spread to the area, according to Lacey.
PM’s support
“We’re not expecting the wind direction to change to push the fire towards Sizewell C or B,” he said, adding the fire service was working with other agencies to monitor weather conditions. Prime Minister Andy Burnham said he was receiving regular updates about the “very serious incident”.
“I will make sure that Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service have all of the support, the mutual aid, the other services that they need,” he vowed.
In Scotland, firefighters have remained at the scene of a wildfire in the Cairngorms National Park which has been burning for more than two weeks and destroyed about 10 square miles (25 square kilometres) of moorland. Between July 16 and 28 more than 200 fires broke out in England and Wales, according to a tally published on Tuesday by the National Fire Chiefs Council body.
Published in Dawn, July 31st, 2026