Work to demolish the building will begin soon
Images show the extent of the devastation(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)
Storage World has said that items on the gutted building’s first floor will not be salvageable due to the extent of the damage.
Fire swept through the storage facility, burning for several days as firefighters wrestled to bring the blaze under control.
Many people with units in the building face losing irreplaceable family keepsakes, and some had been holding out hope that items on the first floor could potentially be salvaged.
Storage World has now confirmed to the Manchester Evening News that after working with a specialised salvage company to assess the structure it found that the building was too dangerous to try and salvage anything from the first floor.
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Self Storage Association CEO Rennie Schafer, who has been working closely on the case, told the Manchester Evening News: “We understand that there are customers there who have personal valuable items there, but we are being advised by the experts, and it’s about safety. We can’t send people into that building.”
He added: “The goods on the top floor are unsalvageable. We may be able to salvage some goods from the ground floor.”
Mr Schafer also said that teams can look for salvage as demolition work is carried out, saying: “If they do happen to find something that looks salvageable they can pull it out.”
The building was gutted in the fire(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)
But he emphasised that the building is in a very poor condition after the fire destroyed large parts of it.
“The demolition process is about to begin,” he said. “We’re restrained by the conditions of the building and the advice we get from the contractor.”
An email has also been sent out to customers at Storage World who were holding out hope of salvaging possessions from the first floor.
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The email said: “Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we have now, exhausted all avenues to facilitate salvage on the top floor in a safe and practical way.
“Following extensive discussions between all advisors, building control, structural engineers, H & S consultants and salvage and demolition contractors, we regretfully can now confirm that it has been deemed wholly unsafe to attempt to salvage items on the first floor without risk of the safety of the staff of demolition contractors and salvage contractors.
“We are sorry for the distress this news might cause for some, but the building is considered a dangerous structure due to the damage it has sustained in the fire, and safety of all personnel is absolutely paramount.”
The building has been deemed unsafe(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)
The email went on to explain that high levels of contamination in the building mean that salvaging from the ground floor is still likely to be an extremely difficult process.
This would involve decontaminating any items retrieved from the wreckage to make sure that they are safe to return.
“We are awaiting further input relating to the opportunity for salvaging items on the ground floor,” said the email. “Our accredited salvage contractor remains engaged with the project to identify any safe opportunities that arise in the course of the demolition that might lead to any possible salvage on the ground floor.
Fire swept through the building(Image: Jason Roberts /Manchester Evening News)
“To manage expectations of ground floor customers, we have been told by the salvage contractors that due to the high, toxic level of contamination, porous materials such as upholstery, beds and the like cannot be returned to customers as they cannot satisfactorily be de-contaminated.”
The email concluded: “We at Storage World couldn’t be more distressed ourselves and for our customers, as we seek to deal efficiently with the final consequences of this dreadful incident.”