A week after a swathe of east Suffolk went up in flames, there's plenty of praise to go around: communities pulling together, emergency services saving homes and caravan parks, and farmers and wardens scrambling to create fire breaks against a 40-metre-high fireball. But there's also a lot of crying. More than 112 hectares (277 acres) of Dunwich Heath, a much-loved nature reserve next to Minsmere, is now a blackened ruin. The rare birds that called it home have lost their habitat, and the rare invertebrates are, in the words of reserve staff, 'decimated'.
The fire started on Wednesday 29 July, cause unknown, but Suffolk Fire Service says it took hold at a 'ferocious pace' thanks to hot weather, dry conditions, and shifting winds. Over 100 firefighters from 18 services have been on the scene. A week later, the above-ground fire is subdued, but the ground below is still cooking at over 600C, with surface temperatures hitting 60C. Hot winds and no rain keep the region on high alert, and many evacuated residents haven't been allowed home. Plus, the fire exposed unexploded second world war ordnance, so the area is off-limits for that extra hint of historical peril.
The wildlife impact is vicious. The reserve hosts some of the UK's rarest birds: nightjars, nightingales, and Dartford warblers. Adam Rowlands, RSPB area manager, notes that the vegetation they need for nesting, feeding, shelter, and roosting has gone. 'They won't have anywhere to return to,' he says. The invertebrates - narrow-mouthed whorl snails, antlions, green tiger beetles - aren't equipped to escape fire, so they've suffered mortality. Even survivors have nowhere to go.
Naturally, right-wing media and commentators have blamed 'rewilding' for the fires. But ask the locals, and rewilding is on no one's lips. Conservationists are firm: this was not a rewilded landscape. Jonathan Spencer, former head of environment at Forestry England, calls it a 'traditionally managed, classic 20th century conservation landscape.' The fire hit old Dunwich Heath, managed similarly since the 1800s, and didn't spread to restored heathland created by the RSPB and National Trust in recent decades.
Rowlands says the rewilding critique is 'missing the point' - they don't have any land at Minsmere that qualifies as rewilding. Paul Forecast of the National Trust adds that the wild habitats probably saved the fire from being worse. He was in tears on his first return to the burned heath. 'These are not really wildfires,' he says, 'they are often started with human barbecues, cigarette butts or litter, but the key thing is climate change.' He's seeing fires on farmland and proactively managed land; climate change is the primary driver.
The loss is palpable. Dunwich village itself was untouched, but businesses are hurting. Flora tea rooms served just 17 customers last Saturday, down from over 200, despite eight staff. A 4-mile stretch of beach during peak season had one angler, one family, and one swimmer. Textile artist Rachel Robinson captures the mood: 'It's a mix of anxiety and depression... We thought the developing world would be hardest hit. No, Europe is.' Sarah Peel of Dunwich museum praises the community's strength, with wardens and farmers working alongside firefighters.
How to improve fire resilience? One anonymous local wants bigger firebreaks and the return of fire paddles and sand buckets, which he says were removed for 'health and safety.' He calls it 'mad.' Conservationists are more optimistic, suggesting rewilding could help. Spencer, advising the National Trust, points to beavers creating wetlands that act as fire breaks - like the Minsmere wetlands that protected Sizewell B nuclear power station. Winter grazing with large herbivores could reduce fuel loads, and a diverse patchwork of trees and scrub beats monocultures. But he concedes lowland heaths like Dunwich are a sandy dome that can't be 'rewetted' by beavers; clay-lined ponds, firebreaks, and controlled burns might be the local answer.
At the RSPB, Rowlands is willing to learn and adapt. 'With this change in climate, we all need to learn all the time,' he says. So, the heath will recover, the birds may or may not return, and the humans will keep arguing about who's to blame. At least the fire gave us a great excuse to mention 'whorl snails' in a headline.