Hundreds of acres of moorland continue to blaze on Marsden Moor
Crews are continuing to fight a large-scale fire on hundreds of acres of Marsden Moor in West Yorkshire.
West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service (WYFRS) were initially called out to two fires which broke out in quick succession at Deer Hill and Five Mile Post on the high moorland surrounding Marsden on Tuesday.
The fire at Five Mile Post has been extinguished, but a four kilometre square area at Deer Hill, continues to burn on Wednesday.
WYFRS said four crews and wildfire units were at the scene and are using specialist equipment, including all-terrain eight-wheeled Argo Cats.
A spokeswoman for the National Trust, which owns 5,685 acres at Marsden Moor, said the fires were partially on their land and had coincided with the beginning of the critical bird nesting season.
Fires on Marsden Moor have caused widespread devastation in recent years.
The biggest, in April 2019, damaged 700 hectares and took four days to put out. The landscape supports large numbers of moorland birds such as the golden plover, red grouse and Eurasian curlew.
WYFRS said there had been dozens of 999 calls over the incident and thanked people for heeding calls to avoid the area.
It said: “We'd like to thank the public for their cooperation in avoiding the area, our partner agencies for supporting our efforts, and our control room, who have taken 71 999 calls around this incident.”