A FIRE at a former school in Bolton is being treated as arson.

The Halliwell site of the old Eden Boys’ School was targeted on Sunday.

Nearby residents smelled the smoke coming from the unoccupied, single-storey building after a fire was lit in the front entrance hall.

Firefighters were called to Cotton Street at 8.15pm and had to break open the side door to get into the building.

Two crews from Bolton and Bolton North tackled the blaze which spread to the roof.

The entrance hall area was damaged by fire, which left the roof charred and the rest of the building suffered smoke damage.

Firefighters said there had been reports of youths breaking into the building and a joint investigation has been launched with the police. A spokesman added: “No one was injured during the incident, which is being treated as arson.”

The old school site, which includes three main buildings and a fenced off car park, is located just off Halliwell Road and is surrounded by residential houses.

Roy Griffiths, whose home in Halliwell Road overlooks the site, saw the fire engines arriving on Sunday night.

The 68-year-old has lived in the street for 15 years and believes the empty building has been attracting trouble.

He said: “It’s been derelict for quite a while and you get a lot of people hanging around there, especially big groups of teenagers.

“A couple of people have been sleeping rough in the doorways too.
“When you walk by you find lots of bottles and cans.

“I would like to see it occupied and run properly. A lot of people use it as a dumping ground since it has been left empty.

Yesterday morning teams from environmental consultant company Sentinel were on site.

It is not the first incident on the site. Last month crews had to put out a fire started outside of the building.

It was believed to have been caused by youths who broke into the building and used paper, books and building materials from around building. 

A spokesman for Bolton Council, which owns the building, said: “We can confirm that the building has now been made secure and we are looking at future options for the site.”

Police enquires are ongoing and anyone with information is asked to contact police on 101, quoting incident number 2244 of 19/11/2017, or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.