Two moor fires converged on Saturday afternoon, prompting authorities to declare a major incident.

A blaze on Winter Hill in Lancashire, which has a television transmission mast that broadcasts signals to millions of people, merged with a fire around Scout Road to the south.

Tony Cook, Lancashire fire and rescue service’s area manager, said his crews had been tackling the Winter Hill fire while colleagues from Greater Manchester dealt with the other front.

The priority on Winter Hill was protecting the transmission mast, Cook said. “We still have 10 fire engines and the fire engines from Manchester at the scene. We advise members of the public to keep clear of the areas for their own safety,” Lancashire fire and rescue service tweeted.

Crews were initially called to multiple fires on the hills near Horrocks Moor farm in the early hours of Friday morning. They were contained but as the heat intensified in thedry weather, the fire flared up again early on Friday afternoon.

Seven square miles of land between Tameside and Oldham has gone up in flames and blanketed the Greater Manchester region and beyond in smoke and ash.

.@CopernicusEMS has been helping monitor the #wildfire that broke out on Sunday in England. Between 27 and 28 June, the burn scar has grown by 110 ha to cover nearly 1000 ha. First responders have been working diligently to contain the blaze. Read more: https://t.co/36tnj9QT8T pic.twitter.com/iq3yjhQAxX — Copernicus EU (@CopernicusEU) June 29, 2018

The Ministry of Defence said the army would remain on Saddleworth Moor over the weekend and into next week to help keep control of moorland blazes in the area following a request on Friday afternoon for continued support from Greater Manchester fire and rescue service.

It could take weeks to fully extinguish the fires on the peat-embedded terrain and dry shrubland, given there is no prospect of rain in the next week.

Andy Burnham, the mayor of greater Manchester, said on Friday: “As it is an ongoing situation and because there has been in some places a flaring-up today of the fire, we believe we continue to need large numbers of people out there providing support.”

Greater Manchester assistant chief fire officer Leon Parkes said: “It continues to be an extremely challenging time for Greater Manchester fire and rescue service and conditions for our crews up on the moors are very difficult. We are doing everything we can to put this fire out but we will be here for some time to come.”