IT’S that time of year again. The evenings are lighter, more people are outside taking a stroll and the heathland fires start breaking out.

There’s also an increasingly trend for this kind of blaze to be set deliberately. Every year, we report on the devastation caused by these fires and today we seem to be at the start of the season. Environmental experts say it could take up to 15 years for Talbot Heath to recover after the events of the weekend. Meanwhile the blaze at Upton Heath has damaged one of the rarest habitats in Britain, just as bird and reptile breeding time gets underway. Firefighters are appealing to local people to join the Heathwatch scheme to ensure the alarm is raised as quickly as possible.

Scores of firefighters are often tied up with these incidents, leaving the potential for a huge problem elsewhere.

It’s not just wildlife that the reckless and the malicious place in danger.