PROBE INTO FIRE AT STUDENT FLAT BLOCK
An investigation is under way into the cause of a blaze at a student accommodation block which spread
The top floor of The Cube, which houses students from the University of Bolton, was gutted and visible damage was caused to the fourth and fifth floors of the six-storey building.
Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service would not be drawn on how the fire started but confirmed the building did not have the same type of cladding that combusted in the Grenfell Tower fire of 2017.
Witnesses said what appeared to be a small fire ripped through the upper part of the town centre six-storey building "within minutes" as it tore up and across.
Ace Love, 35, who described the fire as "crawl[ing] up the cladding like it was nothing", told the PA news agency: "The fire kept getting more intense, climbing up and to the right because the wind was blowing so hard."
Mobile phone video footage taken by one of the evacuated students showed firefighters tackling flames on the balcony of a flat on the fourth floor.
Paramedics treated two people at the scene for minor injuries, including one person rescued by fire crews from an aerial platform, after the blaze broke out at about 8.30pm on Friday.
On Saturday, Assistant chief Fire Officer Dave Keelan, from Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service, said crews worked hard through the night to extinguish the blaze with more than 20 fire engines attending at the height of the incident.
Published: by Radio NewsHub