Heath Fire In Purbeck

17 March 2010, 06:10 | Updated: 17 March 2010, 06:12

70 firefighters spent three hours putting out a fire on heathland in Purbeck on Tuesday evening.

Four acres of gorse and heath has been destroyed at Godlingston Heath after the fire started around 4pm.

Incident Commander, Dai Jones, said: "This was a long job which was made more difficult by the difficult terrain and distance the crews had to walk to get to the fire. It was also made worse by the wind which was erratic, it kept changing direction making it difficult to manage.

"Although we are not sure of the cause, we can say that there was some controlled burning in the area which did not affect the fire, so that can be ruled out at this stage."

This is the third heath fire in Dorset this week. There were two on Sunday at Bourne Valley and Turlin Moor, both of which were started deliberately.