FEARS are growing that an arsonist is targeting nature havens in Southampton after two fires less than a mile apart.

Police today appealed for information while ecologists assessed areas devastated by the blazes that ravaged through areas teaming with rare animal and plant life.

With the vegetation tinder dry after a spell of hot and dry weather, concerns are mounting that more blazes could break out.

As reported, up to 50 firefighters battled flames that leapt up to 60ft on heathland at Peartree Green in Woolston on Friday night.

People living in Sea Road, Bryanston Road and Osterlily Road had to be evacuated by police as the fire crept closer to their homes.

The fire destroyed an area of heath land measuring 200 metres by 400 metres on a site known for its nature conservation.

Just 40 minutes later and less than a mile away, another fire broke out, this time in the Miller’s Pond Nature Reserve in Sholing –famed for inspiring TV naturalist Chris Packham as a child.

Thanks to a quick thinking resident it was quickly extinguished - but the conservation group which has battled for decades for its current urban nature reserve status said it was seconds away from the unique habitat going up in smoke.

Sholing Valleys chairman Colin Oliphant said: “I am not a detective but two fires at the same time is a bit coincidental.

“Everything was so dry, it was like a wild fire rampaging away. It could have been horrendous and we could have lost the whole area.

“If it had got into the gorse the trees would not have stood a chance.”

Sgt Michelle Smith, from Bitterne Police, said: “We are appealing for witnesses to a large fire on Peartree Green which may have been started deliberately.

“We want to hear from anyone who may have information that would assist us with our inquiries – anyone seen acting suspiciously in and around the area or anything else of note.”

City council ecologist Andy Welch, who was today carrying out a damage assessment at Peartree Green, said the damage to the protected site could be the worst the city had seen in over a decade.

He said: “In this isolated space the damage is far more important because it’s not easy for things to come back in.”

Species inhabiting the heathland include grass and adder snakes, nightingales and white throat birds as well as rare bee, Pyramidal orchids and insects such as the brown argus butterfly.

Mr Welch said: “There is nowhere else in the city where you would see such variety in one place.”

Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service said it could not determine how either fire started but warned that the current conditions meant that further blazes could not be ruled out.