FIREFIGHTERS have been called back out to St Bees Head as a fire started by a discarded cigarette has reignited.

Crews from across the county flocked to the Copeland village, working tirelessly through Tuesday night to tackle the huge wildfire.

Fire engines continued to arrive on the scene yesterday as crews controlled the blaze.

At 1.20pm today, they returned and used beaters and water to tackle the hotspots which have reignited.

On Tuesday night, witnesses said the fire had spread quickly, with large flames coming from the grass.

Smoke from the blaze could be seen for miles and a large crowd gathered to watch the drama unfold.

One resident said: "The fire covers at least one-third of St Bees Head. There's seven fire engines here."

The fire crews were called at about 8pm on Tuesday to Beach Road, St Bees and remained at the site on Wednesday.

Originally, five engines were deployed to the incident, from Workington, Whitehaven, Egremont, Frizington and Keswick, along with the wild fire unit.

More engines arrived throughout Wednesday, including from Sellafield.

Lifeboat crews were also called to help the fire service assess the fire while the Environment Agency arrived on Wednesday to evaluate the damage.

Throughout the night on Tuesday, volunteers from St Bees RNLI opened up the lifeboat station for the firefighters.

The crew had only returned from their weekly training exercise when they saw the emergency services rushing to the scene.

Some of the lifeboat crew who live nearby decided to open up the station and offer refreshments to the firefighters.

Cumbria Police say enquiries are ongoing in relation to the incident. Anyone with information should call 101, quoting incident number 283 of June 12.