RESIDENTS living in Poole have described the night a huge fire blazed across Canford Heath.

An area of heathland, the equivalent of 23 football pitches was devastated by a fire over the weekend causing residents to be evacuated from their homes.

The fire burned for roughly six hours, during this time road closures were put in place and approximately 20 homes in the area of Marshwood Avenue, Culliford Crescent and Pilsdon Drive were evacuated while the fire service tackled the blaze.

At the time, resident Rob who was in Knowlton Road described the moment he noticed the Canford Heath fire 'coming over the hill in my direction'.

He said: “Within an hour and a half it had spread to the fence directly opposite us, so we started hosing down anything that could potentially have embers on it or could catch alight.

“We were evacuated from the property and eventually we made our own way back into the house.

“The smell of ash and smoke when we got back was really strong. There were lots of people walking around in shock. It was horrific.”

READ MORE: Man describes moment he saw Canford Heath fire

Bournemouth Echo:

On Sunday morning other residents described being evacuated the night before.

One resident in Marshwood Avenue said: “Police just told us to 'go, go, go' so we all left and we could already see the fire spreading down the hill so we were ready to leave.

“It has devastated the heathland, it’s fortunate it didn’t reach anyones homes, hopefully it won’t reignite.”

One resident said it made them feel sick to look at and described the aftermath as ‘horrible’.

Another resident who was evacuated from Marshwood Avenue said: “We were going to stay at our brother in laws but my neighbour texted me at about 12.20am to say we were being let back in, it could have been worse, there are a lot of people out on the heath today.”

No emergency workers or residents were injured as a result of the fire.