CHILDREN and staff were delighted to get back to work at a Radcliffe primary school on Monday after it was forced to shut because of a fire.

Radcliffe Hall Methodist Primary School, in Bury Street, was forced to close last Thursday and Friday after a blaze in the electrical intake room, which is at the side of the school.

While the fire, which started at around 6.25am on Thursday, did not spread to the rest of the building and nobody was injured in the incident, the school was left without electricity.

Headteacher Denise Luke said that children and staff were relieved to be back on Monday morning.

She told the Radcliffe Times: "Things are back running as normal now and we are absolutely fine.

"The electrical intake room is in a fenced off area of the school where we are having some work done at the moment, so it didn't spread to the rest of the school.

"We have now got a big generator in to provide the school with electricity and everything has been dealt with very efficiently.

"It all happened as the caretaker was opening the school on Thursday and I got down here as soon as I could. It was obvious that we couldn't allow the children into the main part of the building.

"Fortunately, nobody was ever in any danger. I just left things to the experts to tell us when everything was safe again and it's brilliant that we only had to miss two days."

Steve Wilcock, watch manager at Bury fire station, said on Thursday: “A caretaker was on site and was worried because there was quite a lot of banging and popping, and it was well lit when we arrived.

“We put it out using powder and some water to make sure it didn’t spread to the roof and other parts of the school.”