MORE than 40 firefighters from across East Lancashire were alerted when a moorland fire in the hills above Colne got out of control last night.

Firefighters believe a farmer was trying to burn stubble on land off School Lane, Laneshawbridge when the blaze prompted concerns around 5pm.

Around a square mile of Emmott Moor was affected by the fire, near the old Herder's Inn, and 10 appliances from across the county attended the incident.

Watch manager Richard Taylor, of Colne Fire Station, said: "We tackled the fire from two directions, the School Lane and Keighley Road sides, in order to contain it.

"We also called in the police helicopter to survey the scene and ensure that we had brought the fire completely under control. We will be making inspections to ensure the fire has been successfully contained."

Crews from Colne, Nelson, Earby, Barnoldswick, Padiham, Rawtenstall, Burnley and Haslingden were involved in the exercise and a soft track machine and beaters were used to tackle the flames.

Station Manager Ian Potter, the incident commander, added: "Around firefighters formed a circle around the square mile of land to extinguish the fire with the use of beaters.

"We also used our Softrack, an all-terrain appliance specially designed to deal with fires of this type and had our high volume pump on standby in case we needed to pump water from a nearby reservoir.

"We also received assistance from the Lancashire Constabulary's Air Support Unit which enabled us to view the site from above to assess the potential for further spread.

"Fortunately we were able to stop the fire spreading further and by around 8pm we were confident that it was extinguished. We will be remaining on site into the evening and will return in the morning to make sure there is no reignition."

Smoke from such moorland burnings, in the hills above Colne and Laneshawbridge, can be seen as far away as Accrington and Huncoat on occasion.