THE first time Andy McMahon visited Mr Smith's was on his 18th birthday - the last time he did was to tackle the blaze which led to the demolition of the site last week.

The Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service firefighter, based at Birchwood Fire Station, was on call when alerted to the incident in the early hours of last Tuesday.

Immediately he realised the seriousness of the job but along with many others across the town, seeing it first-hand was truly shocking.

"As we drove out of the station and got onto Birchwood Way we could smell the fire from there - the smoke had already hit the roads," he said.

"It was very heavy when we arrived at the scene and we could see the flames of around 15-20 feet coming from the roof - we knew this was a 'big' job.

"We quickly got re-directed to the side of the building as the incident was divided into different sectors to fight the fire - while I was in sector four there were three main jets and a hydraulic platform.

"Our main job was to fight the flames and protect nearby buildings - it was all non-stop at the start to get anything set up and to make sure we had water on all the buildings to stop the spread of the fire."

Despite the intensity of the fire, Mr McMahon said the unity of the team ensured the blaze was dealt with in a truly efficient manner.

"The main roof of the building collapsed because of the intensity of the heat from the fire but with all the crews from all the sectors we managed to protect all the nearby buildings and put out the fire later in the morning," he said.

"This was one of the major incidents which I have attended in the past year, by far.

"However we were all prepared for this type of incident happening, with all the training we do, so we were ready to tackle and extinguish the major blaze at Mr Smith's.

"It was a really good team effort."

With the town still coming to terms with the loss of the historic site, Andy recalled the first time he made his way to the club.

He added: "Thoughts did go cross my mind of this iconic site and the sadness that Mr Smith's was to be no more as I have so many good memories of the place.

"Everyone in Warrington knows of this building, even across the north west people came to Warrington to go to Mr Smith's back in the day.

"The first time I went out in Warrington when I was 18, I ended up in Mr Smith's - it was the place to be and will be a great loss to Warrington."