A MOORLAND fire which took 30 firefighters hours to extinguish is believed to have been started delib-erately.

Firefighters were called to moors off Burnley Road opposite the Deerplay pub on Friday night and found that a fire had been started in two separate locations.

Burnley watch manager John Davies said: "It looks like the fires, which were started in two places were started deliberately, unless of course a passing aircraft dropped something but that's highly unlikely. It's been so dry lately so hopefully a bit of rain will prevent any more moorland fires. "

A second moorland fire broke out on Saturday night, near to the Clowbridge reservoir.

Four pumps - two from Burnley and two from Rawtenstall - were called to the scene at 1.30am on Sunday, and spent nearly two hours putting out the flames using hose reels and beaters..

Burnley crew manager Roy Edwards said: "At that time of night it's highly likely this one was started deliberately, possibly with a cigarette, but the dry weather means the grass is so dead, it spreads very quickly."

Meanwhile fire crews spent two days tackling a fire that raged across three square miles of moorland in Darwen.

The fire broke out on Darwen moors at 5pm on Friday evening - the second incident at the site in two weeks.

Ten crews initially attended the blaze, just off the A675, Belmont Road, including five from Greater Manchester and pumps from Chorley, Darwen, Blackburn and Bamber Bridge.

Crews were stepped down overnight for health and safety reasons but three pumps were then sent out on Saturday morning.

However, the fire caught hold again and provision was boosted back to 10 engines.

Firemen fought the blaze armed with beaters as the engine's hoses were not long enough to reach the flames in the isolated area.

It is believed that the fire started due to the warm weather and lack of rain.

The dry weather over the last week also meant there was little moisture trapped in the moorland's grass and flames spread quickly.

The site was eventually secured on Sunday morning, after a night of rain helped firefighters extinguish the final flame.