A LARGE fire broke out on an area of heathland this morning.
Residents reported seeing smoke coming from the Studland heathland shortly before 11am, near the Sanbanks ferry terminal on the Isle of Purbeck.
The fire service rushed to the scene on the National Trust land alongside Ferry Road and went to work to extinguish the flames.
Crews from Swanage, Poole, Wareham, Bere Regis, Hamworthy, and Wimborne were sent, with flames being ‘fanned by strong winds.’
Incident commander, watch manager Nick Corben from Swanage fire station, said the fire was hard to access from the road, but that the service had managed to put it out.
"We got turned out to smoke in the area down ferry road,” he said.
“We couldn’t find it at first, we couldn’t see it from the road because it was so far back. We sent a couple of people down along and they found the smoke, it was quite a large area, well alight.
"We’ve only been able to fight it with land rovers and specialist off road appliances.
“Water is difficult to get down here. We’ve got a loop so they’re going back onto the main road, filling up and coming back round.”
Watch manager Corben said the fire was ‘going very well’ when crews arrived, due to the windy conditions.
"[A] lack of crews and lack of water, we did very well to stop it,” he said.
“We were worried about it jumping over the track here but we managed to stop that.”
Although the fire was put out, crews will be on the scene for the rest of the afternoon, to make sure the fire was fully out before they leave.
"It is a large area, it’s hot, it’s deep-seated peat so we’ll be here all afternoon damping down and possibly into the evening, inspections in the morning,” watch manager Corben said.
“We’ll just have to see how it goes."
A spokesperson for the National Trust said: "Fire crews were called out earlier today (Wednesday 12 July) to attend a fire at Studland Bay, Purbeck. The fire has broken out close to the beach at Shell Bay on land cared for by the National Trust.
"The Dorset and Wiltshire Fire & Rescue Service (DWFRS) and National Trust team are in attendance and the fire is now under control."
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