“Large” fire currently ongoing at St David’s Church on Eldon Street in Preston with eight fire engines attending

Lancashire Police say they received reports of a “large fire” at 6.19am, and that police, fire and local council are coordinating the incident. You can see images from the scene here.

The church, which is disused and planned for demolition, lies a short while from Roebuck Primary School and is surrounded by homes.

One eye witness told the Post: “We heard all the noise this morning so we went out and witnessed the huge fire – it was a real mess!”

Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service say eight fire engines from Preston, Fulwood, Penwortham, Bamber Bridge and Chorley, the command unit and Stinger from Blackburn, water bowser from Leyland and aerial ladder platforms from Blackpool and Preston attended the scene.

Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus were still tackling the fire using five jets, the stinger and aerial ladder platform, by 9am, and Eldon Street remained closed between the junctions of Inkerman Street and Lulworth Avenue.

Shortly before 11am, LFRS group manager Tom Powell, the incident commander for the Eldon Street fire said: “We currently still have a number of fire appliances and specialist appliances on scene but we will be looking to reduce the number of appliances over the day. Due to the number of road closures in place, there is quite heavy presence in terms of both fire and police resources and we’d ask members of the public to remain outside the cordon so that we can continue to work and resolve this incident as quickly as possible.”

At 2pm, the Fire Service said the incident had been reduced to one fire engine and aerial ladder platform, whilst firefighters were damping down the area. They confirmed that the cause of the fire is under investigation.

St David’s Church was founded in 1910 but in August 2020, a planning application was submitted to Preston City Council, seeking to convert it into supported living housing.

The fire at the church comes a week after a “suspicious” blaze broke out at Highfield Priory School in Fulwood Row. These two most recent incidents join a list of fires across Preston over the last few months, including Tokyo Joe’s and St Joseph’s Orphange in May and the Shawes Arms pub in June.