Firefighters worked through the night to tackle a wildfire at Devil's Dyke in West Sussex after the blaze was reported just after 17:00 BST on Friday.
Eight fire engines and five specialist support vehicles were sent to the scene, with crews from West Sussex fire and rescue services and East Sussex fire and rescue services working together on the response.
Devil's Dyke on Friday night
The fire took place in South Downs National Park, where crews stayed into Saturday after the overnight effort. Their work shifted from tackling flames to damping down the area, a slower phase that follows the main firefighting response.
That change of pace mattered on the ground: the fire had already been worked on overnight, yet crews were still at the scene on Saturday damping down the area. The response remained active across two counties, with West Sussex fire and rescue services and East Sussex fire and rescue services sharing the workload.
West and East Sussex response
For people in West Sussex, the key detail is the scale of the response. Eight fire engines and five specialist support vehicles were committed to one wildfire, showing how quickly crews can be drawn in when a blaze spreads in open parkland.
The open question now is how extensive the wildfire was and what caused it. Crews were still damping down the area on Saturday, so the immediate work was not over when the overnight fighting ended.
