Fire chief's message to children after farmhouse blaze

Two crews from Bamber Bridge attended the incident after receiving an emergency calls at about 11pm last night.

The fire at the empty building on Brindle Road, Bamber Bridge, was spotted by a neighbour.

It was thought children could have been playing in the building.

Crew manager Stuart Howarth, of Bamber Bridge fire station, said; “Some children were playing in the area.

“We managed to put it out from the outside and made a forced entry and searched the place because you are never sure if there are children inside or there could be vagrants.

“The owner turned up, it was his old family home, and he was a bit distressed because, although it’s boarded up, children keep getting in there.”

He added: “We’re going to do some leaflet drops and visits to local youth clubs and schools to say they shouldn’t be playing in buildings like this.”

He said he wanted to get across the message that tackling fires such as this could prevent them from getting to other incidents.

“They’re tying us up there and while we’re tied up, somebody could need us,” he said.

Firefighters stopped the fire from spreading.

Mr Howarth said: “We were there for about two hours. We had to wait for the police to come and secure the building.”

Nobody was found in the building.