Businesses destroyed as fire rips through mill opposite Strangeways prison
Firefighters were called to Southall Street at 4:51am
It's thought a number of businesses have been destroyed, after a huge fire ripped through a mill in Strangeways.
Fire crews were called to Southall Street, opposite HMP Manchester, at 4:51am.
Eyewitness Morgan Leahy told Hits Radio what he could see:
"The flames are jumping 20 to 30 feet above the building. There must be at least a dozen fire trucks there now, from all directions.
"It's two to thee stories tall, you can probably see it from anywhere in Manchester at the moment.
"They're pouring water on it, but there's no saving the building at this moment, it's completely engulfed in flames."
Ten fire engines were called out to tackle the blaze, with more than thirty officers on hand to fight it.
They were assisted by police officers and incident response paramedics, as well as search dogs.
Incident Manager Tony Brian said:
"I wanted to firstly pay tribute to my staff and they have unquestionably put in 100% as usual. We've had some close scrapes. Tonnes and tonnes of rubble but thankfully we had assessed it and we're all going home in one piece as well."
It is expected the building will be demolished later on this afternoon.
Mohammed owns a wholesale company which operated from the site, he said:
"It's nothing. It's all gone. All stock gone, our transport is gone, IT, server, files and office, basically all gone.
"My landlord rang me and said there was a fire so we arrived as soon as possible and waited to see when it will be demolished. The fire team are doing a brilliant job but we have no idea how it happened."