Fire devours pretty heather-clad common in Sheffield

Fire damage on Wadsley and Loxley Common (pic: Wadsley and Loxley Commoners (www.wadsley-loxley.org))

A large patch of Wadsley and Loxley Common was ravaged by the fire, destroying the flourishing vegetation and leaving a scorched wasteland in its wake.

Firefighters were called to the common on Tuesday afternoon, after the blaze broke out in the quarry area, where heather, gorse bushes and some conifers were reduced to cinders.

Volunteers have spent years working to get heather flourishing on the common

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He said it should not take too long for plants to grow again but there was no guarantee the heather it had been covered with would return.

WALC committee members John and Anne Robinson, who witnessed the fire said it was not believed to have been started deliberately.

The group said there is no guarantee the heather will return following the fire

"Eventually two engines managed to get up to just below the quarry and they were then able to drag hoses up to finish putting out the fire. One of the firefighters told us it was probably caused by the hot weather and that they didn't suspect anything suspicious."