Demolition job at Burnley fire station (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Demolition job at Burnley fire station

6:00pm Saturday 23rd June 2012 in Burnley By Tyrone Marshall, Reporter

rubble Bulldozers work on Burnley fire station

BULLDOZERS have moved in to demolish the office block and garages at the former Burnley Fire Station site.

It marks the end of the 47-year-old building which is being replaced with a new £3m state-of-the-art community fire station.

Diggers and trucks have moved in to the Belvedere Road site to carry out the large-scale operation.

The tower block and front of the building will be demolished in the next few weeks.

Work on constructing the community fire station, on the same site, is set to begin next year and should open early in 2013.

The fire service has signed a deal with Balfour Beatty, which will build, finance and operate the new station, as well as carrying out maintenance work for the next 25 years.

It is part of a £17million scheme to build four new fire stations in the county.

John Phethean, the lead officer on the project for the fire service, said: “While it might seem a long time this is a big job and work will be done in four of five phases.”

Before demolition work could begin the fire service had to erect a temporary station, next to the current facility, so that they could continue to operate from there.

The new station is being built as the current one, which went up in 1965, is unsuitable for use as a community fire station.

Accessibility is poor, the appliance bays are inefficient and there is not enough space for community-related activities including training.

The new community hub will include a meeting room for about 40 people for use by local groups, as well as the use of a gym, kitchen and dining areas.