A treasured stretch of moorland has been left an eerie, charred ruin after a huge wildfire tore across the landscape.
Teams have been battling around the clock to stop the blaze spreading across the tinder-dry Peak District.
The fire has burned deep into peat, with flare-ups continuing despite firefighters and gamekeepers working through the night, as reported by Need To Know.
READ MORE: Beloved spaniel plucked to safety in nick of time after getting trapped in mud
Richard Bailey, of the Peak District Moorland Group, said colleagues were battling day and night around Crowden.
He said: “We are hard at it through the night until the early hours of the morning, desperately trying to prevent the right flank travelling towards Carrbrook and all the houses.
“We are managing the flames but it’s the peat ignitions that are the issue when the temperature builds up from midday to 4pm.”
He said staff had split into day and night teams because the blaze continued to reignite due to wind, heat, fuel load and burning peat.
He added: “We are desperately trying to prevent the fire spreading towards Carrbrook.
“Multiple fire and rescue services are on the scene along with some Fire Operations Group partners.
“It’s the last thing anyone wants to do, but the decision was made to create fuel breaks to prevent further fire creep.
“This is a very serious incident which will require some bigger decisions to extinguish, hopefully these decisions can be made quickly.
“We have gamekeeping teams on site tackling extreme conditions with the fire and rescue service and a few other partners.”
He said the scale of the fire had brought neighbouring estates together.
He added: “Wildfire has no regard for ownership boundaries and we are blessed that our moorland estates have come together and rallied the resources when one of our moors is threatened by fire on an apocalyptic scale, such as this.
“The right flank has back burned across the Pennine Way and the decision was made to bring in earth-moving machinery to create vegetative fuel breaks heading out towards Swineshaw Reservoir.”
Bailey also thanked volunteers for supporting exhausted crews.
He said: “This is a terrifying wildfire on a huge scale.
“We pray for everyone’s safety and know that this toxic wildfire smoke will have impacted millions of people over a huge distance.”
READ MORE: Brit couple fighting for lives after being rescued from deadly Spanish wildfire
