Just after 11pm on Monday evening, firefighters from Preston were called to a fire at the Old Spiritual Church on Moor Lane in Preston.
When the first crews arrived at the scene, the derelict building was well alight and the crews quickly evacuated people from several houses in the close vicinity of the church. They then sprayed water on to the fire and surrounding buildings to stop the fire from spreading to the flats that were very close to church.
In total, around 40 firefighters, seven fire engines were called to the incident and specialist equipment such as the aerial ladder platform and a mobile fire station were used to help bring the fire under control. At 3am, two fire engines remained at the scene with the aerial ladder platform and a section of Moor Lane remains closed. Crews are expected to remain at the scene for most of the morning at the earliest.
Incident Commander Tony Crook said:
“The firefighters did an excellent job using the resources they had to stop the fire from spreading to any other building. The residents who were evacuated will be allowed to go back in to their homes once a structural engineer has declared the building safe. The cause of the fire is not yet known, however, we are working with Lancashire Police to determine the cause.”