BLACKBURN'S Pleasington Crematorium will be shut for weeks if not months after mourners had to be evacuated from the building on Thursday when an uncontrolled fire broke out during a funeral.

Senior council official Martin Eden revealed the news after engineers assessed the damage to the machinery.

The fire started in an outdoor storage compound next to the cremation room and also affected the plant room and the chapel.

Blackburn with Darwen Council's operations director Mr Eden said that already six cremations due on Thursday and Friday and all those scheduled for next week had been cancelled.

He said that neither of the building's cremators were operating when the fire broke out around 11.20am on Thursday but it was hoped both could be repaired.

In addition to repairing damage to cremator machinery, other works are needed such as a complete refurbishment of the cremation room, and extensive cleaning including to curtains and carpets in the chapel.

Any burials already scheduled are unaffected and can go ahead as planned.

Six fire engines were despatched to the 80-year-old crematorium in Tower Road on Thursday morning and were on site for around three hours and 45 minutes.

A service was taking place at the time of the fire, and the family had to be evacuated and the service halted. The funeral directors took the deceased back to the funeral home.

The council is reimbursing the family their cremation service costs, and will speak to them about further compensation.

Blackburn with Darwen Council leader Cllr Phil Riley told the borough's executive board meeting on Thursday night the crematorium would be closed for a minimum of two weeks.

Mr Eden said on Friday: "Based on the engineer’s inspections last night and today, I am really hopeful that the cremation service will be back up and running in a matter of weeks rather than months.

“We’ll be in contact with our funeral directors and hopefully we’ll be able to give them a date fairly soon as to when we will reopen.

"Unfortunately a service was taking place as the fire alarm was raised. The family have been absolutely brilliant. They were understandably upset, but very co-operative.

“We’ve had to cancel all of next week’s cremation services.

"We’ve got a great relationship with our funeral directors so they’ve been supporting families and booking cremation facilities in other areas around Blackburn with Darwen."

He added that manufacturers of the cremator machinery attended the site on the evening of Thursday and again on Friday to inspect the damage and think that both machines can be repaired.

Mr Eden is awaiting further details of the repairs needed and the timescales and the fire inspection officer’s report about how the fire started.