Pleasington Crematorium to reopen following fire clean-up

Pleasington Crematorium will be reopening for cremation services on Monday 7 August, Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council has confirmed. 

As a result, the council’s bereavement services team have already notified local funeral directors of the reopening, who have begun to make bookings for cremation services at Pleasington.

This follows news that the crematorium had a serious fire emergency in early June, which meant that the building needed time for structural and roof repairs, a full survey analysis of the building and a deep clean of the building due to smoke and fire damage, among many other tasks.

According to the council, which operates the crematorium, repairs to the second cremator are expected to be completed around early October, by which time the normal cremation capacity of eight per day will be resumed.

Cllr Jim Smith, executive member for environment and operations, said: “We sympathise with families who have been affected by the crematorium’s temporary closure, by having to travel out of the borough for cremations. 

“I also want to thank funeral directors for their patience over the last six weeks – the impact of the crematorium closure on them has been that they’ve had further to travel for services, meaning they could conduct fewer cremation services each day.”

He added: “Initially, the building will reopen with only one of the two cremator machines operating. This will impact the number of cremation services that can be held at Pleasington per day, which will be just five for the time being.”