Sidmouth firefighters are asking the public to use a free smartphone app that identifies precise locations, when reporting incidents in places that could be hard for them to find.

It follows a call-out on Sunday, September 20 to a campfire at Mutter’s Moor which had not been extinguished properly.

A spokesman for Sidmouth Fire Station said they were grateful to the caller for reporting the fire, but the details given did not include the precise location.

He said the firefighters had difficulty finding it, and had to be helped by members of the public at the scene. They eventually found the fire some distance from the car park.

The firefighters are encouraging people to download the What 3 Words app, which has divided the whole world into three-metre squares and generated a random three-word code for each square.

It means users can pinpoint an exact location even if they do not know the address.

All emergency services are able to use the app.