A MASSIVE grassfire has burned acres of land stretching from Edgworth to Blacksnape.

A fire crew from Bolton North joined nine crews from Lancashire to tackle the fire, which started at 3pm yesterday. It spread nearly two miles, from Broadhead Road, Edgworth, to Roman Road in Blackburn.

The fire, which spread because the wind kept changing direction, was eventually put out at 6am today.

FIREFIGHTERS in Bolton had to deal with six times the usual number of grass and rubbish fires started by children with matches at the weekend

Bosses say the abnormal number of blazes in the town is tying up crews who could be needed for life-threatening emergencies elsewhere.

From 8am on Friday to 8am on Monday, firefighters in the borough were called to 89 grass fires. Across Greater Manchester, there were 650 fires of this type, compared with 157 over the same period last year.

Station Officer Peter Brandon, from Bolton central fire station , said they had been called out over the weekend to grass fires in Belmont, Farnworth, Horwich and Great Lever.

He said: "These children are irresponsible. They don't realise their actions could cause a tragedy somewhere else."

It was a similar story for crews in Lancashire, with firefighters in Chorley called eight times to Rivington over the weekend.

County Fire Officer Barry Dixon said it was too easy to attribute these types of fire to the unusually dry weather.

He said: "All these fires have been started deliberately. As a consequence, fire crews are being needlessly tied up at minor incidents which could cause a delay in crews attending a real emergency. Parents should warn their children of the dangers."

In Bury, there were 38 rubbish and grass fires compared to six last year and in Wigan there were 100 incidents compared to 25 over the corresponding weekend.