A fire broke out at the old spiritualist church on Moor Lane last night.

Lancashire Fire & Rescue Service received a call at 11:01 pm, seven fire engines and around 40 firefighters were called to the scene. The cause of the fire is currently unknown.

The spiritualist church is disused and consists of 6 floors approximately 20 by 30 metres across. The fire service had four jets in use. When the first crews arrived the derelict building was well alight and crews sprayed water onto the fire and surrounding buildings to stop the fire from spreading to the nearby flats.

Several people who live close to the area of the fire were evacuated, with Lancashire Constabulary providing them accommodation for the night.

Below you can see photos of the fire and the surrounding area, video and more to come soon.

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.”

Update: 1:10am – Have added video below

Update: 1:15am – Lancashire Fire Service say they’ve reduced the amount of fire engines down to 4 and are assessing the church’s structural integrity with a building assessor.

Cover photo by John Peterson