Wigan borough bar destroyed in early hours arson attack

An external bar in the beer garden to the rear of The Cabinet on Atherton’s Market Street was destroyed by fire in the early hours attack.

Camera footage shows a man setting building materials in a nearby skip alight, the fire the spreading to the bar.

Crews from Atherton and Hindley fire stations were called by a member of the public to the emergency at 2.50am on Wednesday September 6 and firefighters armed with hose reels and wearing breathing gear managed to prevent the flames from spreading to the main building.

Hindley watch manager Luke McDiarmid said: “As far as the external bar was concerned, it was a 100 per cent loss. Once we had suppressed the fire and stopped it spreading to the main building, it became more of a salvage operation, trying to save stock.

"It was a mess but we got there just in time to stop the main premises from going up too.”

The teams were at the scene for the best part of three hours.

Anyone with information about the arson is asked to ring police on 101 or the freephone Crimestoppers line anonymously on 0800 555111.