A31 New Forest Fire: Seven Weeks On, Seeing the Damage From Above
Seven weeks after a major wildfire swept across the New Forest heathland beside the A31, Beaumont Studio returned to the air to document the landscape and capture a different perspective of the aftermath.
From ground level, it can be difficult to appreciate the true scale of a wildfire. From above, the picture is very different. Vast areas of blackened heathland stretch across the landscape, with winding tracks, firebreaks and patches of surviving vegetation clearly visible. The contrast between the burned ground and the surrounding green landscape tells a powerful story of the intensity and movement of the fire.
A Fire That Started Beside the A31
The wildfire began on 9 August 2026, after a vehicle caught fire on the A31 at around 5.20pm. The flames spread from the roadside into the surrounding heathland, developing into a major wildfire that required a sustained response from firefighters and other emergency services.
At its height, the affected area covered approximately 1.6 square kilometres. Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service reported that 169 fire appliances from 93 fire stations attended the incident, with crews spending almost 10,000 hours dealing with the fire. Firefighters remained on site for around two weeks, tackling hotspots and working to prevent the fire from reigniting or spreading further.
Hampshire Fire & Rescue
The A31 was also significantly affected. Heat and fire damaged sections of the road, safety barriers, bridge parapets and boundary fencing. Before the road could reopen, National Highways resurfaced the affected carriageway, installed around 800 metres of new safety barriers and replaced approximately 1,500 metres of boundary fencing. New Forest National Park
More Than 100 Hectares Affected
The environmental impact is perhaps the most striking aspect of the incident.
An initial assessment by Forestry England found that more than 100 hectares of heathland and woodland had been damaged. The fire didn't simply burn the vegetation on the surface. In some areas, it burned deeply into the ground, affecting soil and seed banks as well as vegetation including heather, gorse and the rare pillwort plant.
The damage is particularly significant because the New Forest is an internationally important landscape, supporting a wide range of habitats and wildlife.
Forestry England's September update states that some of the affected areas could take several decades to recover. Recovery work is already being considered, including the use of local heather cuttings to help protect and reseed damaged soils, alongside wetland restoration designed to improve the Forest's resilience to future droughts and flooding.
Seven Weeks Later
Our aerial footage provides a snapshot of the landscape approximately seven weeks after the fire.
The blackened heathland dominates much of the view, but look more closely and there are already signs of contrast and recovery. Pockets of green vegetation remain untouched, while woodland and heathland surrounding the fire ground continue to provide a striking backdrop.
The aerial perspective also reveals the geography of the fire in a way that isn't possible from the roadside. You can see how the burned areas follow the contours of the land, how tracks cross the affected ground and how close the fire came to the A31.
For us at Beaumont Studio, this is one of the strengths of professional drone filming. Aerial imagery isn't simply about creating impressive views. It can provide a valuable visual record of places, landscapes and events, allowing viewers to understand scale, geography and change from a perspective that simply isn't available from the ground.
A Visual Record of the New Forest
This film isn't intended to sensationalise the wildfire. Instead, it documents what remains and provides a visual record of an important part of the New Forest landscape at a particular moment in time.
The Forest will recover, but it won't happen overnight. As vegetation gradually returns and the landscape changes over the coming years, footage such as this can help show where the recovery started.
It's a reminder, too, of just how quickly a wildfire can transform a landscape and why protecting the New Forest from future fires is so important.
The New Forest National Park Authority has highlighted the continuing wildfire risk and asks visitors not to light campfires or use BBQs, to take litter home and to ensure cigarettes are completely extinguished.
Beaumont Studio
Beaumont Studio creates professional aerial photography and cinematic drone video for businesses, organisations, media and documentary projects across the UK.
From landscape and environmental documentation to commercial property, tourism, promotional films and broadcast content, our drone footage is designed to tell a story and give audiences a perspective they can't get from the ground.
Watch the video below to see the A31 New Forest fire site seven weeks after the blaze and witness the scale of the landscape from the air.
