FIREFIGHTERS were on Monday afternoon and evening (December 29) tackling a third blaze in the same area on the edge of Exmoor in four days.

The latest outbreak on West Anstey Common strengthened suspicions that an arsonist was at work.

Fire crews from nine stations spent most of Christmas Day afternoon fighting a blaze on the common’s heathland and returned to their stations in the early evening, only to be called out again late at night when seven different seats of fire were discovered.

On Monday, they rushed back to the common shortly after 2.30 pm to tackle a fire 10 times the size of the Christmas Day incident.

They found two fire fronts stretching nearly 2,000 feet long (600 metres) and used hose reel jets and beaters to prevent the incident escalating.

Five fire engines, a water bowser, and an all terrain vehicle attended from stations in Dulverton, Bampton, Lynton, Tiverton, South Molton, and Barnstaple.

By early evening the incident was broken down into two sectors with the crews hard at work in both, using beaters and a hose reel jet.

Nine months ago in March, an arsonist was suspected to be at work when there were four fires in the area in the space of a week, with three in two days on West Anstey Common and another blaze a few days later on nearby Molland Common, which destroyed a total of more than 100 acres of heathland.