By Henry James

The blaze as it took hold of Abacus Self Storage, in Burscough.

It took firefighters three days to deal with the major blaze at a warehouse in Burscough which caused 12 homes and the Farmers Arms pub to be evacuated.

A total of 15 fire appliances and 80 firefighters were called to the incident at Abacus Self Storage on New Lane, Burscough at 8pm on Tuesday, November 16, 2010.

Firefighters had to use water from the Leeds Liverpool canal on the fire.

The major support unit attended.

Asbestos was found in the roof space, but the fire service said it did not pose health and safety implications to the public.

Firefighters managed to prevent the blaze spreading to an underground electrical substation.

There were two overhead electrical cables nearby and the fire service stopped the fire spreading to them.

There were no casualties. The building was destroyed in the fire.

Barry Sutcliffe, watch manager at Ormskirk fire station, said:
“It was one of the biggest incidents of the year. We had to use several ground monitors, an aerial monitor and an aerial ladder platform to deal with the incident.

"The fire is being investigated, we are not sure at this stage of the cause because of the damage to the property. Crews were at the scene from Friday to Tuesday distinguishing the remaining fires that were there."


Bernard Kershaw, Lancashire County Council principal emergency planning officer, said:

"We're always ready to help the emergency services by opening a rest centre and coordinating assistance from our very supportive voluntary agencies if people need to be evacuated from their homes during an emergency incident.

“On this occasion, we alerted West Lancashire Borough Council and both councils were prepared to respond. However, the relatively small number of people evacuated made their own arrangements to stay with friends and relatives.”

Last month three people suffered serious burns at a major fire at PHS waste management in Tollgate Road, Burscough.

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