Winter Hill fire: Firefighters launch ‘large-scale attack’ in their effort to contain moorland blaze in Lancashire

Blaze: Fire crews continued the operation at dawn on Monday
@LancashireFRS/Twitter
Chloe Chaplain2 July 2018

More than 100 firefighters continued to battle a moorland fire in Lancashire that was declared a “major incident” by authorities.

Fire crews remained at Winter Hill, near Bolton, overnight after a "large-scale attack" was launched against the "rapidly developing, aggressive fire" on Sunday.

Authorities believe the succession of fires may have been started on purpose and arrested a man in connection with the incident. He has been released under investigation.

Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service (LFRS) said it had increased the number of fire engines at the scene from 17 to 22 as the full-scale operation began again at first light on Monday.

Major incident: Firefighters battle wildfires on Winter Hill near Rivington in Lancashire
AFP/Getty Images

"These fire engines are continuing to focus on hotspots around the 8km (5mi) site," the fire service tweeted.

A major incident was declared on Saturday after two large-scale moorland fires merged due to increasing wind speed.

Helicopters were brought in as the operation sought to douse smouldering hot spots and soak nearby woodland to avoid fire taking hold.

LFRS has been assisted by Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service (GMFRS), which itself has been tackling a large-scale wildfire on Saddleworth Moor.

Operation: A helicopter drops water onto fire on the moorland
Bolton MRT

Paul Etches, head of prevention at GMFRS, warned the moorland fires were "not going away" and it would take "many more days of intense sweat and effort" to extinguish them.

The fire near Stalybridge, Tameside, began on June 24 and reignited the following day before rapidly spreading.

Blaze: Firefighters beat out wildfires on Winter Hill near Rivington in Lancashire
AFP/Getty Images

Fire brigades from across the country, including from Tyne and Wear, the South West, Nottinghamshire, Humberside and Warwickshire travelled to the North West to assist with the effort.

However they are working in hot conditions with "no significant rain forecast this week", according to Met Office forecaster Helen Roberts.

Moorland: Firefighters in northern England launched a "large-scale attack"
AFP/Getty Images

She said: "The trend is for dry and very warm weather, which is far from ideal.”

Lancashire police said: “Lancashire Constabulary and Lancashire Fire and Rescue are continuing to investigate the cause of the fire which broke out last Thursday afternoon.

“The origin and cause of the fire remain unknown.

One man, aged 22, from Bolton, was arrested on suspicion of arson with intent to endanger life and has now been released under investigation.”

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