Wildfire in Suffolk.

[Rituelec]

I am feeling so sad about the wildfire in Suffolk at Dunwich Heath.

I don't live too far away, a few miles. This feels very close to home and I just feel sadness for the ecosystem and animals right now.

Very scary.

It's awful- beautiful Dunwich Heath- it's such a rare and valuable environment.

Yes, it's really horrific. It's a place we've enjoyed as a family many times over the years. I see the RSPB have said it would take at least 25 years for the heathland to recover. And presumably that's only if there aren't more disastrous fires in that time.
Meanhwile, the Reform-led council only a few weeks ago wanted to cancel the climate emergency

I guess not surprising with all that gorse & the pines.
Gorse gets burned off in some heaths with controlled burns every year, so I think the eco-system can recover well, but it will look awful for a few yrs.
Minimising soil erosion when rains return is perhaps a priority, it's so sandy down there anyway.

It’s horrific.

I read about it this morning but just watched the bbc lunchtime news and the video footage.

Thoughts are with everyone affected.

Every cloud etc - fires regenerate areas and add nutrients to the soil.

There will be tremendous regrowth with more variety of flora and fauna.

I did not know this.

Wildfires have always been far from home.

Even before this wildfire, Dunwich Heath was highly vulnerable and recovering from climate extremes: Previous severe droughts and heatwaves caused a 60% loss in heather across the site, which conservationists had spent years trying to restore through trials and careful management. The rare coastal heathland is a critical breeding ground for rare species like the Dartford Warbler.Previous habitat degradation nearly halved their breeding pairs, which had only recently rebounded back to healthy levels. Intense wildfires risk destroying these fragile ecosystems permanently

The pictures and videos are terrible. The people evacuated as well.

Also while some places so controlled burns they don’t do it in the summer when the ground is suffering already a fire right now does even more damage than a fire in October.

I wonder if it will be possible to determine the proportion of these fires that have been started deliberately.
I was told by family living in France that arson is a significant factor. Also that fires in Italy were started by setting fire to rags tied to cats who then fled into the forests in terror.
There was a message on my "next door" site about people having bonfires and taking disposable barbecues on picnics.

There have been a lot of Facebook posts where people have caught teenagers starting fires by fields that run off laughing and shouting when an adult approaches them.

Those fires luckily caught and stomped out.

I am so upset by this. I live nearer to woodbridge, but volunteer at minsmere (was there yesterday). Dunwich heath is so beautiful and a valuable habitat. Nature is already struggling in the area from the destruction of habitats due to the sizewell construction and the construction for the new energy infrastructure. I can't bear to think of the wildlife that has died and the firefighters battling this fire. Suffolk is so dry now, and only yesterday I saw an idiot throw a cigarette out of the car window...

It’s devastating and it will take years, possibly decades, for the ecosystem to recover there.

“Adam Rowlands, the Suffolk area manager for the RSPB, says "this is the biggest blaze we've seen at Minsmere, external in living memory", which has been "hugely consequential" for the local wildlife.
He says it could take up to 25 years for the heathland to return to the state it was in before the fire.
Rare species of butterfly would have been in the egg stage

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/ce8l03d90n3t

Im in Scotland where it poured yesterday. Such a shame the rain isn't more evenly distributed. The pictures of how this area looked before are heartbreaking, it looks beautiful.
My thoughts are with everyone caught up in this.

We could smell the burning really strongly in Lowestoft last night. 15 miles or so as the crow flies. A beautiful and vital place that is being utterly devastated. Some of the footage and photographs I've seen have been shocking. Yes, it'll fortunately recover, differently, but that will take years. All of that work and effort caring for and managing the heath, a SSSI, literally up in smoke overnight.

Family have worked there, friends work there, other friends are firefighters who may well be there. This is horrendous.

Did you do the whale count yesterday also? I honestly just feel so wounded and sad.

I don't know what the whale count is, sorry! I was volunteering at the discovery centre and doing pond dipping! Just saw the suffolk fire and rescue first video of the post-fire destruction on their Facebook page. I cried.

It's very sad. They've been there all night so must be quite significant.

It’ll regenerate. Rain is coming.

I find it almost incomprehensible that people would deliberately start a wildfire, especially in the current conditions. It's bad enough when they start accidentally/through lightening strikes, but to cause a wildfire, knowing the risk to firefighters' lives, the homes and property that may be desroyed, farmers' fields (indirectly reducing the amount of food available for the arsonist to eat in a few months, or making it more expensive), the thousands of birds, mammals, reptiles and insects that are killed...and for what? Shits and giggles? Tiktok notoriety? It's just heart-breaking.

I dont think we are due any here!

Sorry, I realised you said Minsmere. Annual Whale spotting was on at Dunwich yesterday.

I honestly feel so so sad about this.

Is that with the national trust? Did you see any??

Dunwich heath one of my favourite places and I feel this keenly.

But there are fires now in East London and East Sussex.

I suppose people will be on here shortly saying it’s summer and this is normal but it really isn’t

There might be some on Monday and Tuesday, but the rain often peters out before it gets to us... i was at alton water last week, the level is so low.