Old Brandauer factory fire

As you will no doubt know by now there was a fire in the old Brandauer factory on Saturday morning.

The strange coincidence is that I was driving past with Graham at 10.45am on Saturday for a meeting in the Pen Museum in the Jewellery Quarter and couldn't believe my eyes. The road was blocked by police and two large engines were at the front of the building with a fireman up a high ladder pouring gallons of water into the first floor window slightly to the left of the large arch. Around the side of the building, where the car wash is, were a further 3 engines at least and a welfare unit. From this view of the inside of the factory you could see the water being hosed in from the front coming out into the yard.

We asked three fireman about the fire and were told that they had been called at 4am on Saturday morning (and it 10.45am when we were around) and up to 12 engines and 40 fire fighters had been used to stop the fire. They believe it was started by accident with some of the homeless who were in the building. As we were chatting we could see the firemen going through the rest of the factory to check, I presume, that it was safe.

On the way back from our meeting we drove infront of the building and you can now see all the way up to the sky from the ground floor - it really is just a shell in that part of the building. There were also two police officers guarding an open door on the far right of the front of the building, whilst someone may have been checking again about the state of the building.

A very sad day indeed as if the old factory wasn't derelict enough since it was sold by Brandauer in 2000. If only it was possible to do something ... Does anyone know anyone with the odd £5million?   It would be a fantastic project to convert it and I would be the first to join to help drive the project forward.  We need to do a 'Restoration' group project as in the TV programme of the same name. 

Anyway, I do have photos of the fire fighter on the long high ladder pouring water over the building as I was taking my camera to the Pen Museum meeting, which I will post in due course. It was all a rather horrid coincidence.