Homes evacuated following fire at mill in Heywood

Shortly before 1.40am today, Wednesday 11 April 2007, police in Rochdale were alerted to a fire at a mill in Heywood by the fire service.

GMP officers were called to a mill on Bury Road/Moor Street. In the course of tackling the fire, fire firefighters discovered an oxy-acetelyne canister on the premises.

A 200 metre evacuation zone was put in place by the fire brigade and a number of local roads were closed while the damping down process continued.

Around 400 homes were evacuated and 45 residents spent the night in Heywood Civic Centre. The remaining residents stayed with friends or relatives.

The evacuated streets are as follows:

• Regent Street
• Windsor Street
• Moor Street
• Gale Street
• Rosehill Street
• Crown Road
• South Avenue
• Hill Street
• Hamer Street
• Bank Street
• Mason Street
• Albert Street
• Duke Street
• Wham Street

The cordon is expected to remain in place until around 2am tomorrow, Thursday 12 April 2007.

As fire officers were dealing with this incident, they were also called out at 3.35am to deal with a fire at a disused chemical warehouse on Manchester Road, Heywood.

This second fire is being treated as suspicious and is being investigated by GMP and the fire service. It's not known if the two incidents are linked at this stage.