Year 8 students have been learning about the devastating effects of heathland fires in their PSHE lessons this week.
Sarah Allen from the Urban Heath Partnership has been delivering the sessions, which have involved students dressing up and re-enacting a crown court trial.
The idea is to show students that not only do arson attacks destroy wildlife and adjoining property, they also put others’ lives at risk and can result in an arsonist having a criminal record that will stay with them for life.
Arson attacks on heathland are a major problem in Dorset, with areas of heathland at Canford Heath and Turbary Park often targeted in the summer months. With the wind behind them, flames can move quicker than an Olympic sprinter and are very difficult to extinguish. The ferocity of heath fires is such that firefighters can only try and tackle the blaze for 30 minutes at a time.
