Firefighters spent more than an hour dealing with a moor fire above Darwen for the third day running.

Around half-a-mile of grass and undergrowth off Rivington Road, near the Blue Lagoon, Belmont, was set alight at around 10pm on Monday.

Fire crews from across Lancashire and Greater Manchester joined forces to put out the flames.

The 35 firefighters spent an hour at the scene, using beaters — sticks with rubber at the end — which were used to hit the flames and extinguish them.

They returned to the moorland yesterday morning to check the fire had been put out completely.

Firefighters had to tackle another blaze on the moorland at 1.30pm on Monday.

The fire, which is believed to have been started accidentally, ran the length of the reservoir bank for about 200 metres.

No-one was injured.

It was the third day of grass fires over the dry and sunny period.

Three young vandals are being hunted after they were spotted starting a series of moorland fires on Sunday.

Fire crews said there were five grass fires around Darwen Tower.

Crew manager Neil Carter said: “The grass is so dry and to have people lighting fires all afternoon is very irresponsible.

“The worst one was about 5.45pm when the wind got hold of the fire and it spread more than half a mile.

“We have spoken to the police about apprehending three young people who were seen starting the last fire.

“A huge amount of grass was burnt.”

And fifteen firefighters tackled a blaze on the moors above Darwen on Saturday.

They spent three hours trying to bring the fire near the reservoir under control just after 4.30pm.

Among the tools used by fire crews to tackle the blazes was the new all-terrain fire engine, the ‘Softrak’.

Lancashire Wildlife expert, Ron Freethy, said: “Burning can be a way of managing woods and moorland however accidental fires can be a problem during breeding times.

"Luckily the breeding on Darwen moorland has not started yet so the effect on the wildlife will have been minimal.”