Forest wildfire hit road to remain shut until weekend

A major New Forest road at the heart of a wildfire will remain closed for repairs until the weekend.

A major incident was declared after a van fire on the A31 near Ringwood on 9 August went on to destroy about 1.6 sq km (0.6 sq miles) of heathland.

The dual carriageway has been closed since the fire started and National Highways confirmed the main route between Bournemouth and Southampton will remain shut until the weekend.

Highways England has said it will replace about 1km (0.6 miles) of boundary fencing and hundreds of metres of barrier.

As the repair work begins firefighters have been removing a 8km (5 mile) long hose used to help tackle the blaze.

Forest residents have also had restricted access to and from their homes while fire crews used a High Volume Pump (HVP) to collect more than 85-million litres of water from Hightown Lake to tackle the fire.

Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service said locals will regain access to their properties once the HVP is removed by about 18:00 BST.

Shaun Lincoln, HVP lead for the service, expressed his gratitude to local residents for their support during the fire and said there are "very few" hot spots remaining, which is why firefighters are now able to collect up equipment from the scene.

Forestry England has said the National Park will take "many years to recover" from the blaze.

Lincoln said most counties across the UK have a HVP and they act as a "water main" for crews when dealing with incidents like wildfires.

He said they are noticing that they are using them more frequently and have "been a blessing in disguise" when called upon.