A local community pulling together, emergency services saving homes and caravan parks from catastrophe, and farmers and nature reserve wardens working to rapidly create fire breaks to halt a marauding fireball 40 metres high – there was plenty to praise the week after a swathe of east Suffolk burned.

But local people were also in tears at the blackened, ruined state of more than 112 hectares (277 acres) of Dunwich Heath, mourning the devastation of a much-loved nature reserve alongside neighbouring Minsmere. The rare birds that inhabit the reserve have lost crucial habitat, while the rare invertebrate species there will have been “decimated”, according to the reserve staff.

The fire started on Wednesday 29 July; the cause is still unknown, but Suffolk Fire Service said the fire took hold at a “ferocious pace” owing to the hot weather, dry conditions and changing winds. More than 100 firefighters have attended the scene since then, and crews from 18 fire services were in attendance.