Fire!

I thought i might write a bit about the recent fire in Manchester which affected us recently.

After only being in our new office for 5 months, it was quite a distressing period.
I awoke on monday morning to find out on the news, that there was a huge blaze in Manchester city centre.
The news reporter didn't say where exactly but that the traffic was a bit chaotic in town. I decided to hold on heading to work until the fire had been (hopefully) dealt with.
It was later on that morning, that the news reporter said the fire was on Dale street and lever street!
I began to panic and scoured the internet for any information on which building it was, but to no avail.
Reports came flooding in that the fire had spread to neighboring buildings and that there was a possibility of someone being inside the burning building!
From the reports coming in, i managed to deduce that the building was next door to my building, but that only made it worse due to the earlier reports of the fire spreading!

After a while images began to appear of the building on fire, the fire looked HUGE, but our office block looked ok from afar.
I then decided to go and check out the drama for myself.
By the time i arrived the fire was pretty much quelled, thanks to the 120 fire men and a few gallons of local fresh canal water!

From the outside our building looked fine, but the fire men said that there was some damage to our building, but they weren't sure what. All we could do was wait and keep checking back, we were told.

It was after a few days, that we were told we could go in the building for half an hour with a fire man escort to get the essentials and assess the damage.
On the day everyone was waiting outside with boxes, carts and anything else to mount a salvage operation.
Upon entering the building, the scene was what i would imagine the blitz or a blackout to.
Inside, the building was pitch black apart from the torch lights, there was a pungent smell of smoke and the shutters had been smashed in so the fire men could get in. We were lead up the dark stairwell and told to watch our step! as you could not see a thing.
Once we reached the last stairway to our floor, we were led onto the fire escape. It was then that more panic set in. Had the floor been burnt out? was our office safe?
On entering the fire escape, there was ash and burnt wood on the floor. We then all looked up, there was a huge hole in the roof! Everyone's worst fears were heightened.
We finally got to our office and slowly opened the door........

What a site, our office looked exactly how we left it on friday! Everything still worked.
There was a bit of dust on the window, which the building assessor said was smoke damage, however I'm not so sure (after a claim methinks).
We all loaded up with what we could carry and moved on. Everyone in our building got off relatively ok, with only the basement flooded due to all the water sprayed next door.
After a few days of collecting our belongings in half hour slots each day, the landlord informed us that the building would be closed for the foreseeable future, with no idea of when the building will be trading again.

This meant that everyone had to find new premises, with everyone looking for space the rush was on.
Fortunately after a week, Ash form our office knew of a space above a cool clothes shop in Manchester called Oi Polloi.
We of course, snapped it up and we are slowly getting things back to normal.

There was must have been at least 50 - 100 business affected by this fire. I had an idea that it would be great for someone to set up a red cross media centre in a tent type mess hall with free coffee and free wi-fi!

Makes you think about people who lose their homes etc.
Thanks to all the firemen and offers of help from the various agencies in Manchester.