Road shut as fire sweeps moorland

The dark area shows the extent of the fire damage

Anxious farmers joined fire-fighters to tackle a massive moorland fire which rampaged through 70 acres of heather yesterday.

The A635 Greenfield to Holmfirth road was closed when a convoy of fire crews, backed by support vehicles from other agencies, raced to the scene at Sail Bark, a couple of miles from Greenfield.

At one time, more than 60 people were involved in tackling the 5ft high flames which consumed areas where seeds for new heathers had just been planted.

Two specialist eight-wheel vehicles from Derbyshire backed up nine Oldham fire crews at the scene.

The blaze, which took more than four hours to extinguish, happened just a few days after warnings from Peak District National Park rangers and farmers concerned about possible risk of fires in the area over the dry Easter weekend.

Before closing the road, police kept motorists moving to allow support teams access to the site which is above reservoirs.

The blaze was on land owned by farmer Chris Crowther who called other hill farmers and friends to help tackle the blaze.

Returning smoke-blackened to his home after the fire, Mr Crowther said: “The dry conditions meant the blaze took hold very quickly.

“Everyone mucked in to help. The fire-fighters did a grand job but the moors are a tinder box and we are asking anyone visiting here to be extra careful in these dry conditions.”

Mr Crowther said that although he has 2,000 sheep in lamb, none was affected.

“However, we don’t know yet what damage to wildlife has been done by the fire,” he added.

Mick Nield, leader of Oldham Mountain Rescue team, said 19 of their members turned out to support the emergency services.

“The two fire-fighting machines from Derbyshire laid down a heavy mist of water to tackle this kind of fire,” he explained. “We were acting as back-up in case any of the teams got into trouble.”