Date: 03/04/2019
Time: 05:22:00
Address: James Street, Blackburn
Incident Number: 1904000679
A fire in a former church, latterly a civic amenity and arts venue (Bureau Centre for the Arts), prompted a firefighting response of nine fire engines and approximately sixty firefighters together with two Aerial Ladder Platform (ALP) appliances and a Command Support Unit and crews. Firefighters first on the scene gained entry at the front doors of the building and established that the fire had taken hold in the interior to an extent that it was unsafe to remain in there due to the imminent collapse of timber-framed balconies and roof trusses. Water jets were directed onto the fire through windows and from the ALPs from above. Firefighters were first alerted to the fire at 5.22am this morning and by 9am the firefighting response had reduced to four fire engines and crews, with the fire largely extinguished but for smouldering pockets of fire remaining. An investigation into the cause of the fire has begun. There were no casualties.