Byfleet Fire: People in Surrey reveal impact
We've spoken to a number of people who have been affected by last week's fire at the Access Self Storage on Oyster Lane.
Last updated 24th May 2023
When reporting on the fire in Byfleet last week, I remember looking in horror at the scene unfolding in front of me, and describing the smoke towering into the sky as 'dystopian'.
The fire was initially attended to by Surrey Fire and Rescue Service on Thursday evening, with firefighters tackling the blaze for much of Friday.
On Friday afternoon, station commander Stephen Tilbury told me that "In total, at its peak, we had ten appliances and specialist height vehicles attending. They came from across Surrey as well as our colleagues from West Sussex supporting us."
"The main unit... is one hundred percent involved in fire at its peak. It looks to me to be a complete loss - we have internal and external collapse."
Days on, the consequences of the fire are beginning to reveal themselves, with local groups and people bracing themselves for loss of stock and treasured possessions.
Pride In Surrey, Surrey's main LGBTQ+ charity, issued a statement last Friday. Having stored outreach and event equipment at the facility for many years, they said that they are "bracing themselves for total loss."
A fundraiser has since been set up for Pride in Surrey, to help restart their outreach work for Pride Month in June. At the time of writing, £2,250 has been raised.
Stephen Ireland, the founder of Pride in Surrey, said: "When the team and I received a call from one of our volunteers to let us know that the storage unit that we store all of our equipment in was on fire, we genuinely thought it was a joke.
"We never thought we'd actually be faced with a blaze that unfortunately does appear to have ensured that we lost a lot of things."
He went on to say: "It's great to see the people we've supported over the years have come forward to support us in our time of need - it just really goes to show that we are needed here and the work that we do is vital.
"If there's any learning from this it's that we are a stronger community, we are a stronger group of individuals if we stand together."
Individuals have also been affected - Stefanie is likely to have lost artwork and pottery. "The pottery were pieces that I've already worked up - because I'm trying to set up a business on a website to sell my pieces. Those were pieces of stock that I've built to actually sell eventually on a website."
Stefanie also highlighted the sentimental value of what has been lost: "It's not always necessarily about the cost of the item, but also the sentiment to it. The pieces of art that was there, some of it I collected on my travels.. or brought over when I moved to the UK from South Africa, and those are irreplaceable."
Paul had his life's music collection stored in the Access Self Storage. "The items I've lost, it's going to be everything - it's around 8000 LPs and singles, a load of CDs, some books..."
He has since launched a fundraiser. "What I want to do now is repurchase some of the things that have got lost, some of the treasures, and also restock things I was going to sell as part of an online business."
On the 19th of May, Access Self Storage tweeted "We're currently liaising with the emergency services about the incident at our Byfleet store. We're focusing on communicating with our customers and neighbouring businesses."
Yesterday, Surrey Fire and Rescue Service have also encouraged people with units to contact Access Self Storage, also saying that "Investigations are ongoing at the scene."