AN ELDERLY woman had a narrow escape when a gorse fire almost engulfed her home.

Sue Hutton from St Breward says she believes the fire, which reached her garden, was started deliberately.

Sue Hutton from St Breward and her dog Poppy inspect the scene after the suspicious gorse fire.

Three fire crews answered an emergency call made by her son on Thursday afternoon.

One crew from Bodmin and two from Delabole rushed to Row Hill at lunchtime to find the fire had a 400-metre (1,300 ft) front and had spread close to Mrs Hutton's house.

The firefighters spent an hour beating down the blaze until the property was no longer in danger. Seven acres of bracken were affected.

Mrs Hutton said: " I think I had a very lucky escape, as the gorse fire came fairly close to my home. In fact, it came across to my garden.

"My son saw it first and called the fire brigade, who were very good and managed to put it out using beaters before it reached the house."

Match

Mrs Hutton, said the gorse would not have caught fire without human involvement.

"Someone must have lit the gorse with a match or something," she said.

"My neighbouring landowner certainly didn't burn the gorse, and I don't know who did it, but really people should be more responsible.

"If it had not been for the swift actions of the fire brigade, it could have been a lot worse," she added.

The fire devastated part of the moor, which is deemed to be a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and is a habitat of the protected pearl bordered fritillary butterfly.

On the same afternoon as Mrs Hutton nearly lost her home, firefighters from across the county dealt with two more such incidents.

A hectare of gorse was set alight at Molinis near Bugle and a crew from Helston tackled a ten-hectare fire on Goonhilly Downs on the Lizard after a pilot from RNAS Culdrose saw the flames and alerted the Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service.

The previous day, crew battled to put out another fire on Tregonetha Downs near St Columb Major.

Mrs Hutton, who has lived in St Breward for many years, said she was used to seeing gorse fires on Bodmin Moor during the early spring months, but her home had not been endangered in the past.

Last April Bodmin fire crews dealt with several gorse fires on the moor, including in the St Breward area, most believed to have been caused by arsonists.