Prime Minister Andy Burnham has pledged that firefighters tackling a wildfire near a nuclear power station in Suffolk will have “all the support” they need. Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service declared a major incident after being called to a blaze at Dunwich Heath, near Leiston, shortly after 5.30pm on Wednesday.
Fire Spread and Response
By Thursday afternoon, the service said the fire was ongoing and covered about 100 hectares, with 18 fire engines and more than 100 firefighters at the scene. Speaking to reporters in Cumbria, 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.”
The fire is a few miles away from nuclear power station Sizewell B and the construction site for new power station Sizewell C. A helicopter was seen flying water collected from the sea near Sizewell B to drop on the wildfire. Chief fire officer Jon Lacey said Sizewell B was an area of concern but the fire was not currently expected to spread there. “We’re not expecting the wind direction to change to push the fire towards Sizewell C or B,” he said, adding that the service was working with the Met Office and the Environment Agency to monitor conditions. “So at the moment, Sizewell B and C are being monitored. We’re in consultation with them, but we’re not worried about fire spread in that direction.”
Impact on Local Community
Suffolk County Council said Cliff House Holiday Park, containing some 200 caravans, had been completely evacuated. Deputy leader of East Suffolk Council Paul Ashton said the community response had been “outstanding” but the fire was still “raging” and “not under control”. He noted that about 40 people were at Westleton village hall rest centre, and villagers had housed all 47 evacuated people overnight. Power has been cut to three postcodes affecting 116 customers, with UK Power Networks working to fix the issue.
Environmental Damage
The fire has spread to parts of RSPB Minsmere nature reserve. RSPB Suffolk area manager Adam Rowlands said the scale was “unprecedented in living memory” and the damage “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.” The affected land, home to rare wildlife including nightjars, would take “more than a decade” to recover.
National Context
Green Party leader Zack Polanski called for Burnham to host an emergency Cobra meeting to discuss wildfires in Britain, saying: “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.” Temperatures soared across parts of the UK on Wednesday, and the Met Office reported Suffolk has received only 2% of its average July rainfall. Separately, in Scotland, crews said they were making “significant progress” tackling a wildfire in the Cairngorms that broke out two weeks ago.
