Warning out after spate of deliberate grass fires in Wigan

Areas of grassland have been targeted over the past week with firefighters believing that youths are behind the fires.

Firefighters were called out to two grass fires on an area of land off Bickershaw Lane, Abram, at around 3pm on Sunday.

While on Monday crews attended two separate grass fires on waste land off Vale Gardens in Hindley.

Mark Anderson, watch manager at Hindley fire station, said: "There have been an increasing amount of grass fires in Wigan that we'd had to deal with.

"There have been four over the last couple of days.

"We suspect they are youths starting the fires deliberately as they have been seen in the areas where they've happened not long after.

He described the perpetrators as irresponsible and went on to warn of the dangers of grass fires.

He said: "People need to be responsible. We don't know how these fires have started but we know a lot of grass blazes can come from discarded cigarettes which are a major cause of them.

"So we would urge people not to start these fires and to be careful around areas of grassland as this is dangerous. The behaviour of the individuals who've done this is irresponsible."