A PUB was evacuated when a blaze gutted a neighbouring warehouse.

Landlord Terry Miller and his wife, Shirley called time early on Sunday as fire ravaged a nearby storage building.

The plug was pulled on a karaoke session at the Rope and Anchor Pub on Bolton Old Road and customers were asked to leave the pub when host Terry spotted the blaze at around 9.15 pm.

Mr Miller said: "For safety reasons we had to evacuate. People had to stay outside for between an hour and an hour and a half."

Without a fuss

About 40 people were inside the pub - but everyone went outside without a fuss.

He said: "They just put down their pints and left. They were really good about it."

The warehouse, owned by Jays of Atherton and rented out to removal specialists J C Daley for storage purposes, was completely destroyed by the fire.

Firefighters sprayed a protective wall of water between the warehouse and the pub to stop the fire spreading and doused the pub building.

But the heat from the blaze was enough to break the pub's rear upstairs windows.

Atherton Fire Station Commander Dave Thompson said: "In total about 50 firefighters were in attendance. It was extremely hot so the pub had to be evacuated."

He explained how one firefighter was taken to hospital after badly bruising his foot while removing gas cylinders from the scene.

Mr Thompson said: "The fire started in the back corner of the building. The police have been called and the cause of the fire is still under investigation."

Sniffer dogs

Sniffer dogs were sent round the wreckage on Tuesday.

Seven pumping appliances took an hour to get the blaze under control and two fire engines stayed through the night to dampen the burnt out debris.

Atherton Leading firefighter Gary Mercer said: "The main storage building, which was 25 metres by 15 metres was completely destroyed."

A 44 year-old man received horrific injuries on Monday morning in a gas explosion in Leigh.

Stephen Chadwick, who was living in a caravan alongside a lorry park off East Bond Street, received 50 per cent burns to his body when a gas cylinder exploded.

Mr Chadwick, who was in a toilet block adjacent to the caravan when the blast occurred, received injuries to his hands, face, body and feet. He was taken by ambulance to Wigan Infirmary then transferred to Whiston Hospital where is condition has been described as "very poorly". The scene of devastation on Monday morning. By Ruth Jolley