Fire service will be on scene of Church Street fire ‘until at least Monday’ due to unsafe structure

Smoke billowing out from former nightclub fire Pic: Daniella Areas Mendes-da-Cruz — Smoke billowing out from the former nightclub during the height of the fire on Thursday Pic: Daniella Areas Mendes-da-Cruz

Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service has said it expects to be at the scene of the Church Street fire until at least Monday morning.

On a video shared to Twitter today (Friday 20 May), Incident Commander and Group Manager Caroline Harrison said there are significant structural issues at the site of the former nightclub and cinema.

Caroline said: “We are currently set at six fire engines and one aerial ladder platform.

“We are dealing with a significant structural incident where the fire has made the structure unsafe and we’ve not been able to go inside the building.

“We’re working closely with partner agencies to make the structure safe so that we can then bring the fire to a conclusion.”

Here is an incident update from Incident Commander – Group Manager Caroline Harrison regarding the on-going incident on Church Street, Preston. We are working closely with partner agencies to make the structure and surrounding areas safe.
Please continue to avoid the area. pic.twitter.com/FDbrNJ15AV
— Lancashire Fire & Rescue Service (@LancashireFRS) May 20, 2022

She added: “We have a significant cordon in place at the moment and we are working with partners and we will look to try and reduce that as and when it’s safe to do so but we are intending that we will be here until at least Monday morning.

“Anybody who is thinking of coming into the area may want to try and change their direction of travel.”

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