Flames tore through the building in Middleton
16:12, 28 Jun 2025Updated 16:40, 28 Jun 2025
Holly Bishop(Image: Submitted)
A group of beauticians have started an appeal after losing their premises and stock in the Middleton storage fire.
Several independent beauticians had set up shop in the storage unit, drawn by lower costs and 24-hour security. Over time a small community sprang up in the storage facility providing including nail, eyebrow, skincare, and make-up among other services.
Now, the group has been left in shock after fire tore through the place where they had built their community. After burning for several days, the decision was taken to demolish the storage unit.
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Among those whose business was affected was actor Georgia May Foote, who previously starred in Coronation Street between 2010 and 2015, and was actually working in the building when the fire started.
“We were all popping our heads out asking is this real,” she recalled. “Then the manager came running down saying it’s a real fire. It was quite scary.
“We got downstairs and saw the fire engines. It seemed to spread extremely quickly and it was right under my room. We were very lucky.”
Heather Brotherton(Image: Submitted)
Georgia shared that a group of businesses had come to call the facility home, saying: “It’s a little community. It’s a lovely place and it’s such a shame.
“Everyone’s really helpful. Because we’re all independent businesses we’re all doing our own thing but we’re all supporting each other.”
It’s not just the community but the businesses themselves which have been devastated by the fire, including losing stock which many of them had built up over months and even years.
Murphy Wood(Image: Submitted)
Holly Bishop, 22, had taken the big step to set up her own business just two months earlier, only to find herself having to start all over again.
“About eight weeks ago I left a salon,” she said. “I decided to take a big jump. I set myself up for eight weeks and spent a lot of money.
“The fire happened right underneath our room, so it was one of the first to be destroyed. It’s horrific.”
The group has banded together after the fire(Image: Submitted)
Despite the challenge, Holly is determined to bounce back, saying: “I will eventually be okay, but it’s going to take a good few months to get back to where it was. I was building my stock up for several months.”
Firefighters swarmed the street outside the storage facility, employing several pieces of specialist equipment in their efforts to contain the blaze.
Despite the extensive efforts the fire, which included lithium ion batteries, burned for several days before the decision was taken that the building be demolished.
Ongoing demolition work at Storage World in Middleton(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)
Sickly yellow-coloured smoke poured from any openings in the building, smelling of burning rubber.
In an update shared on social media on June 21, Storage World Middleton wrote that “most if not all of the contents are anticipated by insurers to be destroyed or unsalvageable”.
The fire has devastated the community of businesses in the storage facility.
Smoke pours from the building during the fire(Image: Jason Roberts /Manchester Evening News)
Heather Brotherton, 35, has been a make-up artist for around seven years and also lost her premises and stock in the fire.
“There was a great community of girls in there, there was about 12 girls, nails, eyelashes, facials,” she said.
“I’m devastated. I’ve literally lost everything. I’ve been on and off crying.”
She added: “The community of Middleton are coming together.”
Murphy Wood also lost her premises in the fire.
She said: “I’m devastated really. I’ve worked really hard to get where I am now and it’s all literally gone up in flames in one evening.
“I’ve been in that unit for a year now. It’s a lot of beauticians all working side by side. We’re a proper community, we’re all in touch with one another.”
Since the fire, the group has pulled together and started a Just Giving page to help them to get back on their feet.
Anyone wishing to donate can do so here.