FIRFIGHTERS tackled a blaze at one of Warrington's most historic buildings on Wednesday - and found it to be full of dangerous asbestos.
The Cairo Street Unitarian Chapel was the birth place of Warrington's Academy and the place North and South author Elizabeth Gaskell buried her young son.
A fire was started in the building adjacent to and owned by the chapel at 6.15pm on April 20.
The building is already in a poor state of repair, with dry rot covering the floorboards and asbestos lining its pipes.
Sub officer Rob Milnes said: "I will not commit crews to such a dangerous building unless there is someone in there. The floorboards are so rotten they are ready to collapse. It is a death trap.
"It was the old fashioned, nasty asbestos, the type that gets in your lungs and gives you cancer. If, in the future, the building is set alight and starts to collapse, the asbestos would be spread across Warrington in the smoke.
"We suspect children started the fire because you have to crawl over roofs to get in. They will have been exploring."
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