Haslemere Herald is helping highlight the immense danger of fires sweeping across our precious heathlands as the hot, dry weather continues.
Astoundingly, people were caught lighting barbecues at Frensham Little Pond and Blackdown near Haslemere even as a huge plume of smoke rose from nearby Longmoor Camp in mid June.
National Trust Rangers are reminding people not to light a barbecue when they visit the countryside, including Frensham Little Pond, Hindhead Commons, Black Down and Ludshott Common, following a spate of wildfires on local heaths.
Despite some localised rainfall, the hot weather has left many landscapes dry and created the perfect conditions for fires to ignite and quickly spread, leaving a charred and lifeless landscape that should be alive with insects, reptiles, mammals and birds living within the dense heather.
Firefighters from Surrey Fire and Rescue Service and Bordon Fire Station battled a blaze at National Trust-owned Frensham Common over several days in late May, as 25 acres burned.
On June 16, more than 74 acres were alight at nearby Longmoor Camp, owned by the MOD, where the woodland affected will take a generation to recover.
Anyone seeing a fire should immediately call 999 and ask for the fire service and not to assume someone else has already reported it.
To read more, see Haslemere Herald article.
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