'Monster' Winter Hill blaze declared a major incident as two fires merge

Firefighters have had to stop work and retreat from battling the wildfires near Bolton after two enormous blazes merged into one.The week-long battle around Winter Hill, which is a key communications hub for the North West, has now been declared a major incident.Firefighters had been making progress with the fires on the western side of the hill but throughout Saturday morning high winds pushed another huge fire towards the hill from the east.