RESIDENTS near Ferndown Common fought a 15ft fire to stop it from spreading and becoming a heath fire. 

Residents of St James Road battled to stop the blaze from 'spreading terribly' on May 8.

Despite Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service being called and on scene by 10pm, residents Lee Newnham, 44, and Kevin Dickson had worked with a fire extinguisher and spades to put out the fire. 

Lee said: "Our back garden is basically the common and we've got a residents WhatsApp group in which one of the residents said that they saw a red glow in the sky so myself and my partner went to investigate. 

"We found the fire and I came back to our house, got one of my fire extinguishers and managed to put a bit of it out and then another resident had come out with some spades and we round and batted out the fire and managed to put it out."

Reported by the fire service to have involved an area of heath measuring 10m x 2m, the cause of the fire is unknown, however, Lee said it is known for teenagers to hang out in a den 30 metres from the fire. 

Moving to the area at the beginning of 2024, he said he occasionally smells marijuana near where the fire started. 

He said: "Some kids built a den in the forest and occasionally we'll smell weed float over past the house so the kids are using it as a bit of a smoke den.

"We know there are kids going in there as we've seen it ourselves but we want it to be made aware to people that if the hot weather is coming now, it's going to happen all too easily."

A spokesperson for Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service said: "Crews from Ferndown and Redhill Park attended the incident along with small 4x4 pumping appliances from Wimborne and Ferndown as well as a water carrier from Poole.

"The incident involved an area of heath measuring approximately 10m x 2m which was extinguished using a hose reel jet, and our stop was in at 10.31pm.