Fire Breaks Out at Decommissioned Fiddler's Ferry Power Station in Cheshire

A fire broke out shortly before midday on 15 October 2026 at the former Fiddler's Ferry coal-fired power station, which straddles Widnes Road at Cuerdley Cross between Warrington and Widnes in Cheshire, England. Local news site Britbrief reported the first flames and smoke were visible from around 11:44–11:47am, with plumes seen for miles across the area.

Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service's incident log, last updated at 14:30, described the incident as a unit on fire at a power station in Warrington and said the fire was contained within a chimney area of the site. The service said all personnel who had been on site were accounted for, and no casualties were reported in the information published at that time.

Emergency response

According to the Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service incident report, twelve fire engines were deployed — eleven from Cheshire stations at Penketh, Widnes, Runcorn, Lymm, Birchwood, Frodsham, Chester, Northwich, Congleton, Middlewich and Ellesmere Port, plus one crew from Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service based in St Helens. An aerial ladder platform, a high reach extendable turret, a high volume pump and a command unit were also deployed.

• Fire engines from eleven Cheshire stations: Penketh, Widnes, Runcorn, Lymm, Birchwood, Frodsham, Chester, Northwich, Congleton, Middlewich, Ellesmere Port
• A Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service crew from St Helens
• An aerial ladder platform and a high reach extendable turret
• A high volume pump and a fire service command unit

As a precaution, Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service asked people living nearby to keep windows and doors closed while the incident continued. Cheshire Police confirmed the fire and put road closures in place; the fire service's own log specified that the A562 Widnes Road was shut eastbound from the Dan's Road roundabout in Widnes through to Warrington. At the time the incident report was last updated, the status of the fire was listed as ongoing.

A power station in the middle of demolition

Fiddler's Ferry began construction in 1964 and reached full operation in 1973, according to its Wikipedia entry, which cites the station's four 500-megawatt units for a combined capacity of 1,989 megawatts. SSE announced in June 2019 that the coal-fired plant would close permanently, and it was switched off on 31 March 2020 after roughly 47 years of generation. Developer Peel NRE acquired the site in July 2022 from SSE Thermal, which had run it since 2004.

Demolition has proceeded in stages since closure. On 3 December 2023, the four northernmost of the site's eight cooling towers were brought down in a single controlled explosion, Wikipedia's account of the station states. According to the official Fiddler's Ferry redevelopment website, Peel NRE submitted a prior-approval application — dated 6 October 2025 — to demolish the remaining structures: the boiler house, turbine hall, chimney stack, gas-turbine exhaust stack and the four remaining cooling towers.

The Fiddler's Ferry redevelopment website also states that, while demolition continues, other activity is already under way on the site: TITAN Group is extracting fly ash for use in low-carbon cement, and SSE Renewables is building a 150-megawatt battery energy storage system. Longer-term plans for the former power station site include over 130,000 square metres of employment space targeting 845 jobs, plus at least 860 homes, a primary school, a local centre and open space.

What is not yet known

None of the sources reviewed had, at the time of publication, stated a cause for the fire. Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service's incident log listed the blaze as ongoing and gave no estimated time for it to be brought under control. Peel NRE had not issued a public statement on the fire itself, as distinct from its demolition plans, in the material reviewed for this report.