Fire crew forced to beat out blazing fly-tipped waste dumped on hard-to-reach land

A crew from Atherton spent more than two hours pulling apart and smothering the flames after large plumes of black and toxic smoke were seen over land off Melrose Avenue, Leigh at 9.15pm on Tuesday June 14.

Crew manager Phil Dearden thinks that whoever left the waste – which measured about 10m by 10m – must have used a four-by-four to get it to the site because the terrain was very uneven and hilly.

He added: “There was no way we could get our vehicle near to the scene and there was no water either.

"So we had to beat the flames out. We used ceiling hooks to pull the tyres away from the other rubbish. Eventually we had to leave it. The wheel trims were still hot so we came back at 7am to make sure nothing had reignited.”