Fire and rescue crews remain onsite after large Hartley Wintney forest fire

Fire crews remain on-site after battling a large forest fire overnight.

Multiple crews in Hampshire have been in the open near Star Hill in Hartley Wintney forest.

Around 15 hectares of woodland went up in flames - which is equivalent to around 37 acres of land.

It is not yet known what the cause of the fire was.

Hampshire Fire and Rescue is urging people to should avoid the quarry area.

Forestry England has been assisting to create fire breaks.

• Fire crews managed to stop it spreading to a nearby house.

Andy Weeks, Hampshire and IOW Fire and Rescue said "We worked with Forestry England to work out where is burned, where is going to and what we can do and what they can do to contain it in as small a footprint as possible.

"There's a sawmill and a quarry nearby, there's a home on one end of the fire ground. And we've worked really hard to contain it within the footprint it was burning and also prevent it from spreading.

"The wind has been carrying it towards the house from when the fire started and we've successfully prevented it from making the leap from the forest to the rear of the house."

"We've got an idea of where it started. It started at and burned very quickly through the valley. We're still to investigate the cause of the fire."

"We've seen a spate of large fires like this. We've dealt with three or four now. If the weather stays as it has been, we're going to be very busy over the Summer. In terms of climate change, we're seeing a greater increase in this size and the number of fires of this type that we're attending."

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