Saddleworth Moor fire: Extraordinary images show huge scale of ferocious wildfire

1/23

Extraordinary pictures show a huge fire rapidly taking hold across moorland in Greater Manchester as firefighters battled to stop it spreading.

Police have declared the dramatic blaze a major incident after it spread wildly on Tuesday and into Wednesday and the Army was put on standby to step in.

Images have emerged showing large areas of grassland completely ablaze with bright orange flames as a thick blanket of smoke billows into the air.

Others show firefighters on the burnt, smouldering moorland as they fought to get the inferno under control.

The Manchester Evening News reported that smoke from the fire could be smelt from as far away as Bolton, 25 miles from Saddleworth Moor.

A woman wears a gas mask on her way back from the shops in Mossley
Cavendish Press

Greater Manchester Police said 34 nearby homes have been evacuated so far as strong winds drive the flames closer to residential areas.

At least two schools will be closed on Wednesday while thousands of people were being warned to keep their windows and doors shut in the area on the outskirts of Manchester.

A wildfire raged on Saddleworth Moor on Tuesday night
Sean Quarmby/PA

On Tuesday, people in the Calico Crescent area of Carrbrook, in Stalybridge, Greater Manchester, were advised to leave their properties.

Tameside Council said that two schools – Mossley Hollins High and Buckton Vale Primary – will be closed.

The blaze started on Sunday and reignited the next day amid Britain's heatwave and has devastated land around Carrbrook. No injuries have been reported.

Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service group manager for Tameside, Phil Nelson, said: "Crews are still tackling this difficult fire and are working hard to contain the blaze and prevent further fire spread.

"Firefighters are faced with very difficult circumstances, intense heat and are working on challenging terrain.

"Our main considerations are for crew welfare. It is physically draining working at this incident and it is vital that our firefighters have regular breaks and that relief crews are available to take over."

Meanwhile the mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham thanked fire crews.

He tweeted: "Huge thanks to the GM firefighters working flat out to contain this worrying situation."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT