Large blaze at primary school

A blaze broke out in the roof of the main hall at Westleigh Methodist Primary School, in Westleigh, shortly after 10.50am on Sunday.

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Four fire engines from Hindley, Atherton, Wigan and Leigh attended, along with a hydraulic platform from Bolton.

It involved an area of the roof measuring 50 x 100 metres and all upper levels of the school were well alight.

Crews fought the fire from height and four firefighters wearing breathing apparatus tackled the flames using four jets and a nine-metre ladder.

The incident was scaled down during the afternoon and fire crews continued to dampen down pockets of fire within the main hall.

Cordons have been reduced and closed roads have now reopened.

Officer in charge, Station Manager Roberts said: “Thanks to the hard work of our crews the main fire has now been extinguished and thankfully the fire has been contained to the main hall. We are continuing to extinguish fire pockets within the building from two sectors.

“There is no further spread to other buildings at the school but its likely crews will be in attendance throughout the day.

A statement from the school said: "We are devastated by the news that there has been a fire at school. Thankfully nobody has been hurt. School will be closed tomorrow.

"Please keep checking our news feed for further news and updates. We are deeply saddened by these events."

A Wigan Council spokesman said all parents and carers had been contacted.

They said: "Huge thank you to the brave fire fighters who tackled the fire today at Westleigh Methodist Primary & preventing the damage from being even worse."