Beach fire at Caister is being treated as arson say police

At roughly 2pm yesterday the Norfolk fire service received reports of a blaze in the dunes on the beach at Caister.

Appliances from Great Yarmouth and Gorleston attended the scene and the fire was put out shortly before 3pm.

Just after 2.30pm police were called to assist fire crews dealing with the incident on the beach dunes near Marine Close.

Aftermath of the recent fire in the dunes at Caister-on-Sea (Image: Submitted by a reader)

A spokeswoman for Norfolk police said: "The incident happened when an aerosol can was set alight and the fire spread across greenery on the dunes off Marine Way at 2.13pm.

"Three teenage boys were seen fleeing from the scene. One was described as being of slim build, around 5ft 4 with a balaclava and ginger hair, a second was around 5ft wearing grey with fair hair and a third was around 5ft and wore all black clothing.

"No arrests have been made but police are treating it as arson and investigations are ongoing."

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The spokeswoman for the force added that "a patch of dune grassland was damaged" and "no injuries were reported".

Witnesses have said that the group of people were wearing masks and some were wearing balaclavas to cover their faces.

It is the second dune fire in a week, as on August 26 the emergency services were called to attend a blaze in the nearby village of Hemsby.

A spokeswoman for the fire service said the cause of that fire remains unknown. 

Fire crews attending the blaze in the dunes at Hemsby on August 26 (Image: Helmi Abid)