Laura Foster
Senior reporter

I've spotted two fire engines heading along the A12 in the direction of Suffolk, from Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service.

It shows just how far firefighters are travelling to help the crews in Dunwich.

This group are just a handful of the fire crews who've been asked to help - with reinforcements already being deployed from Essex, Norfolk, London, East Sussex, Surrey, West Yorkshire and Northamptonshire.

We can now bring you more from Peter Langford, Suffolk County Council's emergency planning officer, who says there is a lot of planning going on behind the scenes so officials can work out when it will be safe for people to collect belongings.

He says there will probably be a police escort and they will aim to send people in three large groups to each of the three holiday parks nearby.

On Thursday, Suffolk chief fire officer Jon Lacey said there were approximately 100 to 150 people who had been evacuated from their accommodation, with 76 people at the Westleton rest centre directly affected.

"There are other people at the caravan parks who evacuated and went their own way to another location," he said previously.

"We are unable to collect exact numbers on those as they dispersed on their own."

Luke Deal
BBC Radio Suffolk

I've also been catching up with Barbara Buckley, the chair of Westleton Village Hall, who has been helping coordinate help for those displaced by the fire.

She says some people are still being housed in villagers' homes while others have decided to go home, leaving possessions behind.

"You can imagine being told to get out of your caravan with just what you're wearing and a few possessions, and some people have no cars so it's really difficult."

People naturally want to get their belongings, she says.

Dunwich Heath is a well-known landmark, sitting so close to the village.

"It's incredibly worrying to have it on the doorstep and [the scene] looks devastating.

"And what it's doing to the wildlife and the area is horrendous. So, I'm so pleased that people are really taking care of us and we, therefore, in turn want to take care of people evacuated out of their sites."

Luke Deal
BBC Radio Suffolk

Image source, Luke Deal/BBC

Peter Langford, Suffolk County Council's emergency planning officer, has now finished the briefing at Westleton Village Hall.

The hall was packed out - I would say well over 100 people, including media as well.

Afterwards I asked Langford what the situation was now, as thankfully on the horizon there is no longer a plume of smoke from where we're standing.

"Whilst the fire isn't under control, it is certainly more manageable," he says.

"The weather conditions are more favourable and we've got additional resources, national resources that have been deployed here to help contain that fire.

"At the moment we are now looking at how we can get people that were evacuated back to collect personal possessions, pick up their cars, so they can then continue on back to their normal place of residence.

"That will alleviate some of the problems we've got in terms of temporary accommodation, but the situation is still unstable, so we're looking for a window of opportunity to escort people back for a very brief period to pick up what they need."

The fire at Dunwich Heath continues to burn as firefighters tackle the blaze for the third day.

Officials this morning say the situation is not completely under control and that it remains a major incident.

In the map below, you can see how the burnt area relates to the Sizewell power station site and holiday parks that were evacuated in recent days.

Zoie O'Brien
BBC Look East

We have just heard during the meeting at Westleton Village Hall that there may be a window of opportunity this afternoon for one member of every family to be escorted back to sites to collect belongings.

This is likely to be from 13:30 BST onwards, we are told.

Crews are still working to fight the fire which has affected an area the size of 200 football pitches.

Zoie O'Brien
BBC Look East

Suffolk County Council's emergency planning officer, Peter Langford, tells the briefing that it is still a situation which is not totally under control.

"It is a fluid situation which we will continue to monitor," he says.

Fire officials add that it is still being considered a major incident.

Zoie O'Brien
BBC Look East

Image source, Luke Deal/BBC

Residents are telling us their hopes for this meeting are that they can retrieve their belongings and go home.

They are very grateful for all of the support from local people, but would like to get back to some normality.

Image source, Jamie Niblock/BBC

We are expecting another briefing from the fire service to start at Westleton Village Hall.

The hall is already packed with residents, evacuees and members of the media.

We will bring you the latest.

Luke Deal
BBC Radio Suffolk

I've been speaking to people at Westleton Village Hall, which has been an evacuation centre for people displaced from their homes and holiday homes.

David Watson owns Mill Hill Farm Caravan and Camping park, about three miles (4.8km) from the epicentre of the fire.

Despite being confident that his campsite was safe, he says he got a digger out and started creating his own firebreak as a precaution.

"I got my digger out. Our campsite is a habitat really, we have quite a bit of grassland for the birds and scrub for the turtle doves, that makes us more vulnerable, so I started to dig our own firebreaks in."

Image source, Luke Deal/BBC

David offered his facilities to those displaced by the fire on Thursday so they could shower and freshen up.

"Most people were in shock, really, but they were relieved to freshen up."

He said you could see the flames from his site yesterday, which worried many customers.

The coastal heathland that dominates this part of Suffolk was the area's "biggest asset but our biggest vulnerability as well", he says.

The only positive had been the way the "community has come together in a fantastic way", he adds.

George King and Luke Deal
reporting from Suffolk

Image source, PA Media

We can bring you some more from Adam Rowlands, who is the RSPB area manager in Suffolk.

As we've been reporting, the fire service has confirmed that the blaze started at Minsmere nature reserve.

Speaking to the BBC yesterday, Rowlands said that wildlife habitats devastated by the "utterly sickening" fire could take up to 25 years to recover - describing it as "hugely consequential".

He explained that rare species of butterfly would have been in the egg stage at the time of the fire, and bird populations would be at risk.

"It will look like a scene of devastation afterwards. All the vegetation will go and the majority of those birds will lose the places where they nest.

"Some of that habitat will take five, 10, 25 years to come back to what it looked like before the fire broke out."

There's more on this in our news story.

Image source, RSPB Minsmere

Earlier we reported that the blaze began at RSPB Minsmere, according to the fire service.

Speaking to BBC Radio Suffolk this morning, RSPB area manager in the county, Adam Rowlands, says it was "such a shock".

"We know right across the healthland that risk is there at this time of year when the habitat is so dry [...] that first spark emerged from the RSPB land and that's devastating to know."

Rowlands has also been speaking with BBC Breakfast in the last couple of hours, explaining that the reserve has "more species [and] greater biodiversity" than any other RSPB reserve in the country - including rare birds, invertebrates and reptiles.

"At the end of it, people will draw breath and really take in the scale of loss," he says.

Staff had been working at the site to boost population levels of rare bird species - some of which were at a "record high" prior to the fire.

"All of that work has quite literally gone up in smoke," he says.

Cliff House Holiday Park, which was evacuated on Wednesday night, has praised the work of the fire service this morning, saying there is "no sign of damage by fire" on the site.

In a new update, the park says it still has no power and will remain closed until given permission to open.

It asks people who were evacuated to wait for further instructions on when they can collect their belongings.

Image source, Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service

Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service says in an update the response to the wildfire has "taken a huge team effort" and it has been "overwhelmed by the support" received from other fire services and local people.

In particular it thanked the fire services from Essex, Norfolk, London, West Yorkshire, East Sussex, Surrey and Northamptonshire.

"We would also like to thank the many local businesses, farmers, volunteers, community groups and partner agencies who have stepped forward to help," they add.

"Whether it's been donating food and drinks, lending equipment, providing practical support, or helping to look after those affected by the incident, people have gone above and beyond."

Image source, AFP via Getty Images

Sizewell is about three miles (4.8km) south from the site of the blaze, says Suffolk's deputy fire chief Henry Griffin.

He says a wetland area provides a natural firebreak, adding the fire service will continue to monitor the situation and stay in touch with the operational Sizewell B plant and under-construction Sizewell C.

"Crews have worked extremely hard," adds Griffin, as he also praises the local community who have "rallied" to help the firefighting effort.

"It's not just a fire service response. We have bulldozers, we have water bowsers, we have the rest centre [in Westleston]. All of this community response has been absolutely fantastic," he says.

Sizewell C, a new nuclear power station under construction a few miles down the coast, is one of the local companies which has sent a bulldozer to help make firebreaks.

Managers at the site previously said they were "closely monitoring" the situation but said the fire "currently poses a low risk to Sizewell C".

Image source, PA Media

The land that has been burning is full of "oil rich vegetation" which means it burns "incredibly fast", says Griffin.

"So we're monitoring those deep seated hot spots that have got into the ground, into the roots of this vegetation and we're dampening that down to mitigate any re-ignition."

We can now bring you more from Henry Griffin, Suffolk's deputy fire chief.

As well as being used to create firebreaks, bulldozers are also making tracks for the fire service.

Griffin tells BBC Breakfast: "This is a significant incident in terms of scale and terrain, so access is tricky for our crews - hence we have bulldozers making firebreaks and making tracks into the fire ground, so we can access the fire."

Image source, Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service

Wilson says some staff at Dunwich Heath are helping with the fire effort - despite being evacuated from their homes.

"We've had members of our Dunwich team directly affected, they've had to relocate. As have holidaymakers and other local residents as well.

"They are being impacted on a personal level. Some of them have still been coming to site, they've been out alongside my ranger team in tractors helping the fire service, and under the direction of them to cut firebreaks and try and curb the fire."

A firebreak is an area of open land that has been made by clearing the woodland and vegetation to stop the fire spreading.

Wilson adds: "From the images we've seen so far everything has burnt."

The area is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and has nature designations, he says.

"We have this mosaic of woodland, heather heathland which it's mostly known for, and gorse and higher plants and scrub.

"[It's] a lowland heathland, it's coastal, so it's fairly rare in it's own right from that."

Image source, PA Media