Teenagers snapping away on their phones is nothing new, but quick-thinking Rosie Toomer, 18, had the foresight to use hers to capture the recent Canford Heath fire as it took hold.

The result is a series of images offering insight and a potent warning into how dangerous and ferocious the blaze – believed to have been started deliberately – really was.
Her vivid description of events unfolding is also fascinating.
“I was going for a walk with my boyfriend, whose garden backs onto Canford Heath,” says Rosie.
“We began smelling smoke, but thought it was a bonfire or barbecue. Then a friend called to warn us about the fire.

“We retraced our steps to view things from a safe location (Canford Heath Road). I was curious to see where it started, and worried about how quickly it was spreading.
“Embers jumped from the fire – it was getting worse. “When it reached the bottom of the heath by the road, ambulances started to arrive.

Pictures: Rosie Toomer

“A terrifying moment,” says Rosie, “was when the perimeter fence at the road caught fire, creating thick, black smoke, which engulfed people’s houses.
“It was suffocating, you couldn’t see through it, with falling debris inside.”
Rosie captured the fire from different angles.
“It was rapidly travelling down the hill, destroying anything in its way. I realised it was serious when the fire brigade started evacuating people from houses.
“I witnessed people packing their belongings into their cars, even an elderly woman with her cat in a basket, as they fled their homes.”
“Most terrifying was the degree of heat the fire let off. “A few days after it was out, the smell of smoke lingered.”
Rosie expands: “The sky turned grey and the sun was blocked out, creating a dark atmosphere. All you could hear were trees falling, smoke alarms going off, sirens and helicopters flying over.
“My parents in Wimborne could smell the smoke from their garden.
“I was struck by the families witnessing this and parents saying: ‘this is why you don’t play with fire’. “Children were terrified.”
On the fire’s impact on the local environment, Rosie, who works as a dental nurse in Wimborne, says: “It’s devasting the impact it’s had on the heath’s ecology. It would have been the height of the nesting season.
“All the wildlife would all have been impacted, whether they lived in burrows, on the ground, in bushes or in trees. “Now, instead of beautiful plants and trees creating shades of green throughout, it is black,” she adds.
And the people who may have caused the fire?
“I hope they get caught and are punished for ruining it for no apparent reason.”

by Lorraine Gibson