PADIHAM Medical Centre was closed today after a boiler exploded in the early hours causing heat and smoke damage to surgeries and treatment rooms.

The centre, owned and run by five doctors, was making arrangements to use rooms across the road at Burnley Health Care Trust's Padiham Clinic for emergencies.

Dr Antony Marshall said: "Fortunately the doors to the boiler and the surgeries were closed which kept the fire damage to the boiler room.

"The front of the building is served by another boiler so hopefully we will be able to get that working and be able to use some of the surgeries within a week.

"I got a call at about 2.30am to say the fire brigade had smashed windows to get in because smoke had been seen coming out of the building.

"It is fortunate the building was unoccupied at the time because it could have happened at any time.

"This is a busy time of year because there are a lot of viruses and chest infections about. We will try to get the centre back to normal as soon as possible." Two surgeries at the back of the building only suffered smoke damage and so should be back in use soon.

Dr Marshall said the computer system was hopefully unaffected.

Four crews from Padiham and Burnley attended and eight firefighters wearing breathing equipment entered the building to tackle the fire.

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