INVESTIGATIONS into two major East Lancashire fires delivered their preliminary findings — as a landmark mill was bulldozed for safety reasons.
Heavy plant was drafted in as Roe Lee Mill, which once welcomed King George V and Queen Mary on a visit to Blackburn, was pulled down.
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Foul play is suspected after the former Duckworth and Eddlestones weaving sheds caught fire late on Sunday. Shortly after the blaze was spotted, a man was arrested on suspicion of arson and was bailed until August 17.
Richard Edney, Lancashire Fire & Rescue Service spokesman, said: “The fire is believed to be arson as there has been a number of suspicious fires there over the past six weeks.”
The original mill building, which dated back to 1912, was flattened after a planning application was lodged in 2013. But the sheds, home to a carpet company for a number of years, remained.
In a separate probe, fire investigators formed the view that another major blaze, at TCS Waste in Heys Lane, Great Harwood, last weekend, looks to have been started accidentally.
Mr Edney said: “An investigation into this incident is progressing but we are working on the theory that it was started accidentally.”
Early indications were that the fire, which wrecked four skip wagons and a number of pieces of industrial machinery, had begun in a skip.
Several loud explosions drove back firefighters on Sunday morning, as tyres on the skip wagons exploded due to the heat.
Roads were closed nearby and a specialist chemical-incident truck was drafted in to prevent waste from reaching an adjacent brook.
Company boss Jimmy Miller lost £60,000 worth of stock in another fire last November and is thought to have suffered similar losses this time around.
The two major fires come just a fortnight after the Lancashire Telegraph revealed plans by the county fire service to reduce the number of fire protection and prevention officers by 17.
Eighteen home-fire risk assessors would be removed, with four community-fire-safety adviser roles and a management post introduced in the prevention division.
In the protection unit, six fire-safety managers, one team leader and seven fire-safety enforcement officers would be axed, to be replaced by four business-fire-safety advisers and a senior manager.
Savings of £10 million over the next four years must be found by the Lancashire brigade.
The Fire Brigades Union warns that the “austerity agenda” will have an impact on public safety.
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