'Heath fires spark memory from the 1970s'

It was a very hot dry summer, and there was the usual fear of the heath going up in flames. One day my mother saw a teenage boy going along our road towards the heath, and he had a box of matches with him. He was lighting matches and throwing them down on the pavement as he passed our house.

My mother stormed out of the house and up to the boy and demanded that he give her his matches, which he did, rather guiltily. I wonder what would happen if she tried to do this nowadays? I expect the boy's mother would go and complain to my mother that she was stopping her son from expressing himself, and she would demand his matches back. And Canford Heath would go up in flames again! Mrs A Thorne Coles Avenue, Poole.