A major blaze ripped through Bradford’s Interfaith Education Centre leaving it structurally unsafe and in need of partial demolition. Fire investigators were today working to establish the cause of the blaze at the 19th century Grade II listed building, in Listerhills Road, Bradford.

Phillip Harrison, a structural engineer at Bradford Council, inspected the damage from an aerial platform.

He said some of the gable and tower of the old Victorian school building would need to be knocked down to make it safe before the road could be reopened to the public.

He said: “The gable is rocking so it is not safe. We are going to have to remove part of that to make it safe. All the timbers inside the tower have charred and a lot of the slates are not fastened to anything.

“We are going to have to bring that down to a safe height.”

He said rather than bring the whole building down, contractors would do as much as was needed to make it safe and a decision about the building’s future would be made later.

The blaze broke out at about 8.30pm yesterday and, at its peak, around 40 firefighters and six fire engines were at the scene.

Mark Rogerson, watch manager at Bradford fire station, said: “The crews confined the fire to the building and stopped it from spreading.

“When the crew arrived they could see flames through the windows and shortly after they started coming through the roof.”

The unique education centre is funded by Education Bradford to support religious education, collective worship and racial equality.

Its staff reflect the religious communities of Bradford and work alongside teachers in the classroom to support RE teaching, lead visits to places of worship in the community and support faith worship in schools.

The centre also housed a bookshop and a library.