Residents in one of the best-loved resorts on the Suffolk coast have been left shocked after the third major blaze in the town in a week.
Firefighters were called to the second major gorse blaze at Southwold Golf Club in seven days on Saturday afternoon.
And between the two blazes a large number of bins were set alight near the pier.
Crews from Leiston, Halesworth, Lowestoft and Southwold were called to tackle a blaze in gorse land near the golf club on Saturday afternoon.
Chiefs said an area of land measuring 20m by 20m was well alight, but stressed there was no threat to human life or buildings.
News of the blaze comes just after six hectares of gorse land went up in flames in just 20 minutes.
There had been fears this blaze could have been started deliberately – especially after the blaze which destroyed 100 stored bins on Wednesday.
Southwold mayor Matthew Horwood said there was concern in the town following the fires – but said it was not clear that the heath blazes were started by an arsonist.
He said: “There are worries about fires being started deliberately, but the weather has been very dry and windy and the heath fires do not take much to get started – a cigarette end or a bit of glass focussing sunlight.”
County councillor Michael Ladd, who is also a member of the town council, said emergency security lighting was being installed along the seafront after the bin fire in a bid to put off potential arsonists.
He said: “We are all being vigilant about the situation and we are doing what we can to prevent any further incidents – we have spoken to Waveney about improving the lighting in that part of the seafront.”
Like Mr Horwood, he felt the dry weather was the most important factor in the heath fires – and said people were aware of the need to be careful.
A meeting is being arranged with clubs that use the heath and businesses like the Pit Stop Cafe on Southwold Heath to try to warn of the current danger – and to assure them that everything possible is being done to ease the risk.
But what is really needed to make the heath safe again is for there to be some serious rain because the gorse and other heath plants are now very dry.
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