Hankley Common habitat fears after wildlife sweeps through
At its height, 16 fire engines were at the scene of the blaze which broke out at about 16:00 BST, according to nearby residents.Six fire engines remained at the scene on Sunday.Mr Inns said as soon as they were allowed by SFRS, they would go into the area in the hope of finding any surviving reptiles.
The heathland is also home to ground-nesting birds, including nightjars and skylarks and has been used as a Hollywood film set, including for the James Bond film Skyfall, and the Marvel movie Black Widow.Mr Inns said: "It takes decades to repair. It was one of the best sites for reptiles in Surrey, if not the country."He said the ARC was seeing habitats taking "noticeably longer" to repair following forest fires due to hotter, drier summers which, with breezes, created an environment ripe for wildfires."If the rest of the summer is like this it will be harder for anything to grow through," he said."The environmental bank balance of investing all that time into these sites is reset to zero. It's burnt all of our investment.
Rob Jenks, Surrey Fire and Rescue Service group commander, told Radio Surrey: "The ground underneath is very dry with the significant heat we have had in the last few weeks and months."He said the cause of the fire had yet to be determined, and urged residents to be mindful of bonfires and barbecues during the heatwave, which can "spread very quickly to a serious fire" if not monitored properly.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
12 minutes ago
- BBC News
Emilis Vanagas: Tributes to boy, 15, who drowned in River Kelvin
The mother of a teenager who died in a Glasgow river on the hottest day of the year has paid tribute to her "forever 15" Vanagas got into difficulty in the River Kelvin, near Maryhill Road in the West End of the city, at about 18:40 on Friday.A rescue operation, which involved a police helicopter, was launched but his body was recovered at 23: family said Emilis had died just a month after celebrating his 15th birthday. Daiva Daivute, who is originally from Lithuania, shared a link to a GoFundMe page which has been set up in her son's on Facebook, she said: "My heart is broken my dear son. Always remember never forgotten. Forever 15." Ms Daivute's sister-in-law Patrycja Majewska set up the fundraising page to help with the funeral costs and it has so far raised more than £4, said Emilis had just celebrated his 15th birthday on 13 June and had the "whole of his life ahead of him but sadly lost his life".Ms Majewska posted: "His parents get tragically (sic) news on Saturday 12 July that they found Emilis in one of the river close to house and unfortunately he was pronounced dead at the scene."He lost his life but save two other lives and always will be remembered as a HERO." Another aunt, Ema Kaftanikaitė, said the family was "heartbroken".She posted on Facebook: "We lost my beloved nephew Emilis far too soon - he was only 15 years old. "His life was full of love, laughter, and dreams that will now remain unfulfilled."No parent should ever have to bury their child." Scotland's hottest day People had flocked to beauty spots on Saturday as temperatures soared across said it was the hottest day since June 2023, with the Met Office recording the heat as 32.2C (89.96F) at Aviemore, in the Highlands.A temperature of 32C (89.6F) has only been recorded on six previous occasions in Scotland since other people died in separate incidents.A 63-year-old woman died in a fall near Campsie Glen waterfall in East East Lothian the body of a 39-year-old man was found in the River Tyne at a 50-year-old man who was pulled from the water at Loch Lomond on Saturday died in hospital on Scotland said none of the deaths were being treated as suspicious.
BBC News
12 minutes ago
- BBC News
Berkshire farmers' concerns for crops in drought weather
A farmer who planned to harvest his crops at the end of June is hesitating due to the risk of wildfires which has delayed his work by three weeks. Colin Rayner uses combine harvesters and balers and said that when the fields are dry the machines may cause a spark which will set fire to the crops. "If the fire gets out of control it will leave my farm and get into people's houses and we have schools surrounding our fields."Another farmer George Brown is concerned about the quality of his oats and barley as he had to collect them early. Mr Rayner has been a farmer for 51 years in his family farm in Maidenhead which was established in grows barley, wheat, maize, sunflower, oilseeds rape and has some cattle and Rayner hesitated to harvest these crops which he planned on the 30 June "The risk was too great for my men and machinery and the public at wide and the fire and rescue service."The farmer had two minor fires this year and has delayed harvest till the land is less dry "luckily it didn't spread too quickly."If there is rain in the coming days Mr Rayner hopes to harvest next week which would be a three-week delay in harvest when timing is crucial for farmers. Hot and dry weather have caused farmers in Berkshire to harvest up to a month earlier than usual - having an impact on yields and quality of the Brown who grows porridge oats, spring barley and white clover on Priors Farm in Peasemore near Newbury shares the same concerns as Mr Rayner."We had a very wet winter, and it kept raining till the end of February, so planting was difficult this spring and ever since February we had almost no rain in the farm."His concern is the quality of the crops."Just the massive amount of dry weather there is concerns whether they have actually fully ripened [...] we can't really tell until we harvest it." Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue service said after the dry weather, the risk of wildfire across the country is 'substantial'. In the past few days they have responded to "a significant number of fires in the open, especially in rural areas." You can follow BBC Berkshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
Sky News
an hour ago
- Sky News
Weather: Temperatures set to hit 30C in parts of UK this week
Temperatures are set to hit 30C in some parts of the UK this week. Highs of 28C can be expected on Thursday before temperatures are forecast to peak at 30C in London on Friday, Met Office meteorologist Jonathan Vautrey said. Other areas in southeast England will push towards the high 20s on Friday, where the average temperature in July is around 23C. "We're starting to see south-westerly winds come in, that's bringing in hotter and more humid conditions, particularly in southern areas, we are going to see temperatures climbing again," Mr Vautrey said. "Friday is looking to be the peak of the current hot spell. This heat is not going to be as widespread as what we've just come out of, areas to the north aren't going to be seeing the same highs." 2:59 But the weather is set to turn later in the week, with a chance of heavy rain and thunderstorms across the UK on the weekend, Mr Vautrey said. Temperatures will start to slowly drop but are still expected to reach 28C or 29C on Saturday and 25C on Sunday. It comes after temperatures soared past 30C in parts of the UK last week - as the country had its third heatwave of the year. A yellow thunderstorm warning has been issued for much of Northern Ireland from 11am until 8pm on Thursday, and this unsettled weather is forecast to spread across more of the UK. Heavy showers and a few thunderstorms may cause some disruption, particularly to travel, with between 30mm and 40mm of rainfall over a few hours in Northern Ireland, the Met Office said. 0:46 Meanwhile, Southern Water has become the latest company to bring in a hosepipe ban as England battles exceptionally dry weather. Restrictions like watering gardens, filling paddling pools or washing cars would come in for households in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight from Monday, the company said. It has been the driest start to the year since 1976 for England, causing many water companies to bring in hosepipe bans. Rainfall across England was 20% less than the long-term average for June, the Environment Agency said. This June was the hottest on record for the country.
