Ashdown Forest fire: Winnie the Pooh’s Hundred Acre Woods ablaze
29 April 2019, 15:00 | Updated: 30 April 2019, 11:01
Firefighters say over 50 acres have been ravaged by flames as the iconic beauty spot burns to the ground
A fire has destroyed parts of Winnie the Pooh’s ‘Hundred Acre Wood’.
Firefighters were called to Ashdown Forest in Sussex, the inspiration for A.A. Milne’s beloved collection of stories, around 9.30pm on Sunday night to tackle the devastating blaze.
But parts of woodland had already been completely destroyed by the inferno, which reportedly burned overnight across an area near Kingstanding, which is roughly 20 miles north-east of Brighton.
An East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service spokesman said: “Six fire engines, four Land Rovers, a water carrier and the control unit are in attendance and our teams are tackling the fire using beaters.”
This is the second fire to sweep across the Sussex beauty spot in two months.
The cause is not yet known and although emergency services put out the flames as quickly as possible, spokesman Andrew Gausden told the BBC that conditions made it tricky to control.
“This seems to have caught hold before people noticed the fire.
“The undergrowth was very dry in the forest, despite the recent rain, and the fire caught quite quickly.
“We had numerous calls, including from the police who have a training centre nearby,” he explained.
Hundred Acre Wood became an iconic location in literature after author A.A. Milne used the charming spot as fictional character Winnie the Pooh’s home.
The luscious landscape, filled with distinctive heathlands, gorse, bracken and pine trees, was “identical” to Pooh’s forest, according to the author’s son Christopher Robin.
A.A. Milne lived just north of Ashdown Forest in a place called Cotchford Farm, near Hartfield.
