A PROBE is underway after a suspicious fire involving two large skips at an East Lancashire household waste recycling centre last night.

Firefighters battled for more than two hours to bring the blaze at the site in George Street, Haslingden, under control on Wednesday night.

Crews were hampered by the fact that the rubbish inside the sealed containers had to be removed before the fire could successfully be tackled.

Not only were crews from Rawtenstall and Haslingden fire station detained for between two and three hours on the night but firefighters had to return for four to five hours today, to further deal with the incident.

Steve Morley, a crew manager at Rawtenstall fire station, said: "It isn't great that we had to spend five hours there the following day and county council staff had to be called out to deal with the incident."

County council officials closed the Haslingden site on Thursday, as part of the clean-up operation and advised any potential users to use the Whinney Hill centre, near Accrington, instead.

The Haslingden centre is expected to be reopened on Friday, according to the county council.