A CRUMBLING building has been placed under 24-hour guard after children diced with death by breaking in to collect bonfire wood.

The move came following the part collapse of the former Park Hotel, at the entrance of the former Sun Paper Mill, Feniscowles.

Today council bosses vowed to pull the building down themselves and bill the owners unless it is demolished within the next few days.

And police said the case should act as a warning to all youngsters about the dangers of playing in derelict buildings.

Fire crews and residents in Preston Old Road feared children were trapped and conducted a two-hour search when part of the inside of the old pub in Preston Old Road collapsed at 9.20am on Tuesday.

The owners of the land and two cottages next to the pub, Sappi Specialities, responded by putting a security guard on duty at the site 24 hours a day.

The former pub is owned by scrap metal merchant and businessman Ted Lethbridge.

A member of staff at his scrapyard in Gorse Street, Blackburn, confirmed that he owned the building but said he was unavailable to comment.

Adrian Fortune, station officer at Blackburn Fire Brigade, said: "We attended because there had been fears that somebody might have been trapped inside especially with children being off school for half term. We contacted the police to check that there hadn't been any reports of missing children as a precaution."

Neil Collin, Sappi financial and administration manager, said: " I know what children can be like and they will do anything to get the biggest and best bonfire. The main concern at the moment is to prevent the children from going inside to get wood."

Inspector Tony Doherty, of Blackburn Police, said: "Youngsters have got to realise the danger that they are putting themselves in by entering buildings of this nature.

"We have had reports in the past where the council have bordered up buildings but still youngsters ignore the warnings and break in."

A mother of three children aged three to seven, living in nearby Tintagel Close, Feniscowles, said: "My husband and I have been worried about this building for ages because it looks dangerous. The children do not have anywhere to go around here so the first place they go to hang out is that building."

A resident who has lived opposite the pub for more than 40 years, said: "I want to see the building demolished as soon as possible and that feeling goes for everybody who lives around here because house prices are being affected by the eyesore.

"I have seen children hanging around the building and I have tried to warn them to keep away, but they take no notice."

The Mayor of Blackburn, Coun John Williams, ward councillor for Livesey with Pleasington, said: "It is disgraceful that this building is still standing, it has been in the same state for years and the demolition is well overdue. It has been a miracle that nobody has been killed.""

A spokesman for Blackburn with Darwen Council said it was happy with the security measures which had been taken on the site before Tuesday's incident but it would knock the building down unless the owner completed the work.

Graham Burgess, executive director, added: "The council's building surveyors have deemed the premises to be unsafe and have told the owners to take immediate action." The council has erected a fence around the building and has had to place temporary traffic lights in the road for safety reasons."

The standard procedure is that the cost of demolition is passed on to the owner if the council carries out the procedure.

Mr Burgess added: "The council became involved in the building as soon as it was found out that the building was unsafe and then we took the appropriate action."