Holiday park evacuated during Suffolk wildfire, as power station monitors blaze
The fire is covering an area of 140 football pitches
Last updated 1 day ago
A holiday park containing about 200 caravans has been evacuated after a wildfire broke out on the Suffolk coast, as nearby Sizewell B power station said it was “closely monitoring” the blaze.
Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service declared a major incident after being called to reports of a wildfire at Dunwich Heath, near Leiston, shortly after 5.30pm on Wednesday.
In an update on Thursday, incident commander Christopher May said crews would continue to “fight fire” in the area for the next 24 to 36 hours because of the “size and complexity of the incident”.
As of Thursday afternoon, the fire covered about 100 hectares and 18 fire engines were at the scene, Suffolk County Council said.
The council said Cliff House Holiday Park, containing some 200 caravans, had been completely evacuated as a precaution.
Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service will have “all the support” it needs to deal with the wildfire near the coast, the Prime Minister has pledged.
Speaking to reporters, Andy Burnham said: “We’ve got the situation under close monitoring, and I’m receiving regular updates.
“It is a 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, and any other resources that need to be brought to bear.”
Dilys Hall, 75, who has been helping people who were evacuated from their homes in Suffolk, said she could see the smoke billowing up until lunchtime.
She said 47 people and eight dogs came to Westleton, where the village hall is being used as a rest centre, looking for accommodation after being told to leave their homes on Wednesday evening.
Ms Hall described the evacuees as “bemused”, adding: “They didn’t expect this, and neither did we, but we were there and we were able to help.
“They were all concerned but they all realised that until the morning came, and things settled down a bit, there wasn’t a lot that could be done.
“At lunchtime it became clear that the fire was serious enough that nobody was going to be able to get back, particularly to Cliff House (Holiday Park), which was where a lot of the evacuees have come from, until at least late afternoon tomorrow, and possibly later than that.”
She described the smoke “billowing up” in the distance, adding: “You could see flames from higher up in the village.
“We thought that by today, the flames and the smoke would have died down, but in fact, the smoke was still billowing up at lunchtime.”
Power has been cut to three postcodes whilst the fire is being dealt with.
The power currently affects 116 customers and teams from the UK Power Networks (UKPN) are working to fix the issue.
UKPN has not yet confirmed when the power will be back on and has communicated with customers, the fire service added in an update on Thursday afternoon.
“Eighteen fire engines and 120 firefighters are involved in the response, but difficult terrain and limited access routes are making it hard for crews to reach some areas of the wildfire,” it said.
“The fire remains fast moving, and crews are working hard to contain it and protect surrounding areas.”
The blaze is a few miles way from nuclear power station Sizewell B and the construction site for new power station Sizewell C.
On Thursday, an EDF spokesperson said the fire was “not affecting operations at Sizewell B power station”.
The energy supplier said they were “closely monitoring the situation” and it is understood Sizewell B has an emergency plan in place that covers a range of scenarios including a fire on site.
A spokesperson for Sizewell C said the construction site was also “closely monitoring” the fire, adding “it currently poses low risk to Sizewell C, given its distance from site and watercourses in between”.
“Sizewell C sites and offices continue to operate as normal, but we are continuously assessing the impacts of smoke and the effects on the road network to ensure that our people remain safe and emergency services have priority,” they said.
“We remain available to support the local community, in collaboration with the local council and police and Fire and Rescue Services.”
The fire service posted a video of damage caused by the blaze, which has spread to parts of RSPB Minsmere nature reserve, with the footage showing blackened trees and scorched ground.
Speaking near the site, RSPB Suffolk area manager Adam Rowlands said the scale of the blaze was “unprecedented in living memory” and the damage was “quite devastating”.
He said: “It’s been tinder dry so with the drought conditions, all the vegetation, the ground is extremely dry and so once this fire took off, it spread dramatically and quickly.
“It’s spreading through the pine trees so in places that’s 20 metres high.”
Mr Rowlands said the affected land, some of which is managed by the National Trust and the RSPB, was home to rare wildlife including nightjars and it would take “more than a decade” for the habitat to recover.
He added: “It’s been years of effort to get the habitats in such good condition.
“You know, the record numbers of nightjars and Dartford warblers and nightingales breeding on the site this summer – so years of hard work to get those bird populations to really evolve, and then absolutely devastated and wiped out by this one event, so it’s really heartbreaking for the team and all the effort they do.”
Green Party leader Zack Polanski called for Mr Burnham to host an emergency Cobra meeting to discuss the outbreak of wildfires in Britain, including in Suffolk.
“Across the country terrifying wildfires are raging, forcing people to leave their homes not knowing what they will come back to find,” Mr Polanski said.
“Thousands of people have been killed by deadly temperatures in the most extreme heatwaves we’ve ever faced.
“And yet our Prime Minister is silent in the face of this existential threat.
“Burnham should call a Cobra meeting and set out urgently how his Government will keep people safe amid this crisis.”
Temperatures soared across parts of the UK on Wednesday, reaching into the 30s in some places.
Separately, in Scotland, crews said they were making “significant progress” tackling a wildfire in the Cairngorms that broke out two weeks ago.
A number of homes in the remote region were evacuated as plumes of smoke billowed into the sky, and vast swathes of trees, heather and grasslands have been left charred and blackened.