00:00Good afternoon everyone, my name is Mike Gladwin, I'm the Divisional Commander for
00:04Lancashire West Division. I just wanted to talk to you today about a tragic
00:10incident which occurred behind me this morning. Our officers were called to
00:14Peter Street in Blackpool at 2.39am following reports of a fire with people
00:21reported to be inside the property. There was a significant emergency response
00:26involving officers and our colleagues from Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service.
00:31Tragically a woman in her 20s was found deceased at the scene. A man in his 20s
00:38was later pronounced deceased at Blackpool Victoria Hospital. Our thoughts
00:43are with their loved ones at this devastating time. Two children have been
00:49taken to hospital for treatment, one of them is very poorly. Work is ongoing with
00:55our colleagues from the fire service to establish the cause of the fire. We are
00:59keeping an open mind at this stage, nobody has been arrested. I know this
01:05tragic news will be met with great sadness in the local community and
01:10people will want instant answers. However there are grieving loved ones still
01:16trying to come to terms with this devastating news. I'm sure you will all
01:20share in our thoughts being with them at this tremendously difficult time. With
01:25that in mind I would ask for patience and the people avoid unhelpful and
01:30upsetting speculation. I would also ask anyone and appeal to anyone who saw or
01:36captured anything suspicious on their CCTV, doorbell or dashcam in the Peter
01:41Street area in the early hours of this morning to call 101 or report it via our
01:47website. Quoting log 9797 of the 17th of July 2024. Thank you and I'm happy to
01:56take questions. You can see the damage of property behind your shoulder, what area
02:03is the investigation focusing on at the moment, is it downstairs, is it upstairs, can you give us a bit more detail about that. You can see the cordon which has been placed
02:11behind me, the entirety of the scene internally and externally is under
02:17investigation at the minute so it's wide to make sure that we capture all the
02:22evidence that we can do to understand why this fire has started. This is a joint
02:27investigation you're saying so and you're keeping an open mind, why have you
02:33taken that decision, is there something that suggests that you need to have a
02:37broader investigation? We're keeping an open mind because we are
02:41establishing the evidence, we're in that phase now working with our colleagues in
02:44Lancashire Fire and Rescue Services and with professional specialists within
02:49forensic science to understand exactly why that fire started and once we gather
02:54that information and it becomes clearer as to the nature of the cause of the
02:59fire, we'll then guide our investigation. In terms of the people in the family affected, there are two children and a man and a woman. That's correct.
03:09Are there any other children or any other persons involved?
03:14As I say, those are the people that are involved at the moment. It's very sad and obviously our thoughts go out to their families.
03:21Do we know if they lived there, were there visitors or was there anything else you can tell us?
03:26We understand that they lived there and they are parents and children.
03:30And a number of properties have also been affected, I can see. What happens to them?
03:36We've sought the need to evacuate a very small number of properties for what is hopefully a very short period of time while we conduct our investigations.
03:45They have been supported in that evacuation and with the accommodation elsewhere.
03:51Clearly you can see the front of the property, the back of the property, there is a blue tent, isn't there?
03:57There is. Can you tell us a bit more about why that tent is there?
04:01It's part and parcel of the wider scene and the ongoing investigations.
04:05I can't comment on the specifics of exactly what evidence, where we are in the current status of the investigation in terms of that evidence recovery and examination at the scene.
04:14But clearly you can appreciate that we are leaving absolutely no stone unturned here.
04:18And that includes the tremendously detailed examination by professionals and experts behind me at the scene.
04:27And how long will this take? If you can describe to us what the next 24 hours, 48 hours are going to be like?
04:33There is no easy answer to how long this will take. It will take as long as it takes.
04:38We want to make sure we are thorough, we do a professional job and we maximise all our opportunities to understand what has happened, how it has happened.
04:47And that will take as long as it takes us to do that.
04:51Thank you.
04:53What was the scale of the response this morning when emergency responses were called?
04:58Well, as you can imagine, there were a number of emergency responders, both from the police and the fire service.
05:06A number of fire service pumps attended and obviously our colleagues in North West Ambulance Services were also at the scene.
05:13So it was a considerable response from all our emergency services.
05:18And when will people be able to return to their homes once they have been evacuated?
05:22The honest answer to that is I'm not sure. Hopefully not as long as they would want.
05:30But as soon as we can make sure that they can get back into the property and we have conducted our investigations at the scene, we will ensure that they can do so.
05:38Do you have any idea at the moment how long it will take for a person to go back and sort of, you know, drive through again?
05:45No, I don't know that. Again, probably the answer I've just given to your colleague here.
05:51It will take as long as it takes because we are not compromising our investigation or the exact location of the scene to make sure that we understand all the evidence which presents to us and tells us why this has happened.
06:03So I do apologise to local residents. I know this will be disruptive, but I'm sure the residents on the street will share in our thoughts with the family.
06:12And I'm absolutely positive that they will understand why we need to do what we're doing and will hopefully accept the disruption to their daily lives.
06:20I was just wondering if you could tell me a little bit about the samples that have been put together. How old are they? Are they going out now?
06:27I can't go into the specific details of them at the moment.
06:31As I'm sure you can appreciate, the identification processes we do are ongoing. They've not been formalised.
06:38And we take great care of those processes to make sure they are done in a synthetic manner and properly.
06:44And those processes are ongoing, so I can't at the minute go into any specifics about the children.
06:50Okay, and with the other child as well, you can't tell us?
06:53Other than the child is very poorly.
06:56Can I just ask you one question again about the fact that you're keeping an open mind about what's happened here?
07:04So we have two adults, mum and dad, who have died. We've got two children in hospital.
07:10Tell us about, as far as your investigation, the police investigation is concerned, how are you treating this?
07:18It's been treated as an investigation where we are establishing exactly that, exactly how this has been caused.
07:28I'm not going to speculate at the moment until we have gathered all the evidence that we can to make sure that that then steers and guides the investigation, whichever way it will go.
07:40As I've mentioned, no suspects have been arrested at the moment and we are keeping an open mind.
07:47I'm not going to get drawn into any speculation.
07:50It's tragic isn't it, looking at two young children, parents have died.
07:54It's tremendously sad. I can only imagine the pain that those families and relatives, the children and the parents are feeling right now.
08:04And I just say my thoughts go out to them.
08:08Are you looking for anyone else in relation to the fire, any third parties involved?
08:12Again, what I would reiterate is that this is early stages in the investigation.
08:18The experts and the forensic examination of what's happened in the house behind me will then guide the investigation as to where it needs to go.
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