FIREFIGHTERS could have reached a devastating property fire even faster if the service hadn’t been battling an arson attack on Studland Heath at the same time, it has emerged.

Dorset Fire and Rescue Service (DFRS) group manager, Andy Fox, told the Daily Echo the 999 call to a house fire in Swanage’s Victoria Road came as the town’s firefighters were tackling a deliberately-set wildfire, that eventually destroyed around three acres of protected heath.

On Monday evening firefighters tackled a second fire at Studland Heath caused by arsonists.

DFRS crews from Wareham, Hamworthy and Poole attended Victoria Road within 10 minutes of the call, but Mr Fox says a Swanage crew may have got to the incident even quicker.

The ground floor flat interior was gutted during Sunday evening’s blaze, and the first floor flat was also severely damaged.

One man from the first floor flat escaped the flames before firefighters attended. No one was in the ground floor flat at the time.

“We’d mobilised one fire engine to the heath and they’d asked for assistance,” explained Mr Fox.

“While three more appliances were sent to the heath fire, stand-by cover was put into Swanage.

“But right at the worst possible time, before we had standby cover in place, we had this property fire in Swanage.

“Luckily for us and the people in the flats they managed to get out, but the fire got bigger and bigger and there was a lot more damage than there would have been. If someone was in there, they wouldn’t be coming out.

“We were tied up because some idiot had set fire to a heath.”

At one point the Victoria Road fire, believed to have been started by an electrical fault, was so intense flames burned up through the floor of the first floor flat.

Mr Fox said: “If we’d have had two fire engines in Swanage available I suspect we’d have dealt with the property fire with three fire engines, but we ended up with five because it got much bigger because we weren’t there quick enough.”

Heath could take up to 30 years to recover

THE heath and gorse destroyed in the Studland Heath fire on Sunday evening could take up to 30 years to return to its pre-fire state, experts warn.

National Trust ranger Paul Bradley said: “It started about 10 metres in from the road, so whoever started it has actually left the road and walked on to the heath.

“If you go further into where the fire took hold it has obviously been a very hot, deep burn.

So all the heather has been killed off, maybe also the feed bank in the ground, which can take up to 30 years to return to how it was before.

“There are reptiles in the area, this is also part of the territory for dartford warblers.”

Yesterday firefighters returned to the scene several times to damp down hot spots.