A report by Rennie Schaefer, Chief Executive Officer at Self Storage Association UK and FEDESSA

At around 1pm on February 21 fire broke out at Self Storage Tameside, near Manchester.  The official fire report is yet to be released but it appears the fire started with an electrical fault and then quickly spread throughout the building.  At its peak there were over 125 firefighters attending the scene.  They managed to contain the fire to the one building which contained over 250 self storage units across 3 levels.  Nearby houses were evacuated due to smoke from the fire, but residents were allowed to return early that night when the fire was under control.

There are over 1,200 self storage units on the site spread across a number of buildings, the efforts of the fire fighters along with the impact of fire doors and other protection meant only one of the buildings was destroyed, however some of the adjoining buildings also received smoke and water damage.  The bulk of customers were unaffected by the fire, being located in buildings far enough removed from the building that burnt down.  Unfortunately all goods in the building concerned were destroyed with limited likelihood of any salvage given the intensity of the fire.

Many customers had elected not to take the insurance offered by the self storage company and did not take out alternative insurance so have no financial compensation for their loss.  The current COVID-19 lockdown has made the situation even more difficult for some customers that do not live locally and cannot easily attend the store to assess any damage to their goods.  A Facebook page has been established to support victims of the fire along with various GoFundMe pages.

Staff from the business have been contacting all customers as well as posting updates on its website.  In particular, they were initially calling customers to request access to units suspected of water damage so they could be assessed and dried out if required.  Fire units were still on site over a week after the fire started, putting out hot spots.  The fire and safety authorities have ordered the impacted building's remains be demolished and cleaned up as a priority due to safety concerns.  This process started on March 3.  Customers in the buildings not impacted by the fire were allowed back into their units on an appointment only basis.

It is a harrowing situation for customers, many of whom have lost belongings of a personal nature or in some cases business stock.  While fires in self storage buildings are rare, they do highlight the issue of insurance in the industry.  Some self storage businesses have been criticised for charging high fees for customers' insurance and not declaring these fees in their promotions.  The self storage businesses would argue that their insurance is more comprehensive than other options and comes with a high level of customer service when claims are made.  Certainly, in this case, those customers who had insurance and lost their goods in the fire have had their claims settled rapidly, mostly within 48 hours.

There are also other options for self storage customers, some home and contents insurance can be extended to cover goods in self storage and often business insurance can cover stock in storage.  There are also numerous online insurance companies that offer policies covering goods in self storage.  Ultimately insurance is the choice of the customer, but it seems whenever there is a major incident in a self storage store many customers are unclear of the requirement to insure their goods, having failed to take insurance or correctly value their goods in storage for insurance purposes.

Story courtesy of Rennie Schaefer, Chief Executive Officer at Self Storage Association UK and FEDESSA.

Photo: The fire at Self Storage Tameside.