FIRE crews are returning to Winter Hill today for an eighth day of battling blazes as a ‘rapidly developing, aggressive fire’ ravages the moorland.

The moor fire near the Blackburn with Darwen border, which at one stage it was feared would spread over to the Darwen Moors, is now being treated by 25 firefighting units from various stations across the north of England.

The huge blaze merged with one in Scout Road, Bolton, on Saturday due to increasing wind speed and a major incident was declared as crews tackled the blaze.

Various warnings have now been issued to the public in a bid to keep everyone involved as safe as possible.

A fire service spokesperson said: “We are continuing to tackle fires across various locations at the Winter Hill side and Scout Road side of the incident.

“On Sunday we increased firefighting efforts in order to mount a large-scale attack on the fire fronts.

“We are however, really concerned that members of the public are heading up onto the moors.

“We really appreciate your offer to help but public safety is a priority and we ask people to stay away. Keeping windows and doors closed due to the smoke is also advised.

“We also ask those who have drones not to fly them over Winter Hill.

“There are helicopters flying in the area to extinguish the fire and the drones are putting firefighters and pilot’s lives at risk.”

At one point over the weekend the fire also got close to the main TV transmitter mast which services much of East Lancashire.

A 22-year-old man from Bolton is now being held as part of a joint investigation into the cause of the inferno between the fire service and police.

Darwen resident Tracy Jones, who jumped into action after seeing a call out for help on Facebook, said people were more than happy to do all they could to help the crews.

She said: “After a callout on Facebook saying that help was needed with the fire at Winter Hill and that there was a fear of it travelling over to the Darwen Moors and our beloved Darwen Tower, local fundraiser Caitlin Jones, Cllr Kieran Robert Richards, various friends and I jumped into action and contacted Sainsbury’s in Darwen and B&Q in Blackburn, Bamber Bridge and Bolton.

“We were so surprised by the generous contributions they made- water, cans sandwiches and crisps from Sainsbury’s and aluminium shovels and face masks from B&Q.

“We managed to get everything up to them and they were so grateful for the kindness shown.”

Lancashire fire service area manager Tony Cook said “very intensive firefighting” is taking place on Winter Hill, including personnel doing shuttle runs in appliances to get water to the scene while others manually try to beat the fire out.