THE cost of the Winter Hill fire has hit £750,000 and the figure could yet rise.

But the costs to the fire service will be limited to £110,000 because of an emergency financial assistance fund.

An update on the costs will go before the fire authority’s resources committee next week.

Firefighters battled the blaze for 41 days, covering 18 square kilometres of moorland.

They were sent to the blaze 1,600 times and they used 680 bottles of suncream to protect themselves from the heat and direct sunlight.

Including Lancashire, 19 fire services across the country helped out, as well as mountain rescue teams, United Utilities and other agencies.

Firefighters from East Lancashire were among those involved in the effort.

A report to go before the committee states: “Costs agreed to date are £750,000, however it should be noted that we have not yet received all invoices in relation to the incident, including those from fire rescue services who assisted, and as such we cannot accurately predict the final total cost.

“As this incident is covered by the Bellwin Scheme of Emergency Financial Assistance we will be making a claim under this and hence our total net costs should be limited to the threshold £110,000.

“The committee will be updated on final costs, once all claims have been received.”

Following the fire, access was reopened to the areas around Winter Hill and Rivington Pike.

But people are being warned to stick to the public paths over the moorlands to allow the damaged ground to recover.