Wirral marshland blaze being treated as arson - police looking for four teenagers

The huge wildfire that swept through a marshland nature reserve on the Wirral peninsular at the weekend is thought to have been started deliberately.

Six fire engines tackled the blaze, which started just before before 6:30pm on Saturday, and covered around 1 sq km of land of ‘special scientific interest’ at Parkgate.

Cheshire Police said they are treating the incident as arson and are particularly keen to speak to a group of teenagers - three boys and a girl aged between 14 and 15 - who were seen in the area about ten minutes before the fire broke out.

The girl had long dark hair and was wearing a dark jacket. The two boys were wearing dark jackets and the third teenager was wearing a light blue jacket and trousers.

They are believed to have gone in the direction of Moorside Lane.

The police are appealing to the public for information, CCTV and dash cam footage to help with the investigation.

Fighting the fire

Fire engines from Cheshire and Merseyside tackled the blaze for around 15 hours, using beaters and hose reel jets.

Fire breaks were also put in place to protect nearby properties as two areas of fire spread around the marshland.

The fire was eventually left to burn out as fire crews retreated because of unstable ground.

Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service station manager Carl Nevitt said: “The fire covered over one square kilometre of the area and was being driven by wind.

“We created fire breaks to protect properties and the police air support unit was used to give us information on the directional spread of the blaze.

“We were at the scene for some fifteen hours, leaving just before 10am this morning (Sunday 20 March) having monitored the area overnight after the flames were extinguished.”

All crews have now left the scene.