The blaze at its height captured by Jewish Telegraph reader Mike Gastwirth A BUILDING occupied by five Jewish-owned companies was gutted by fire on Wednesday morning in a blaze, which caused an asbestos scare in the area.
Around 7am, 80 firefighters and 12 fire engines were called to the blaze at Unit 5, Mountheath Industrial Estate, George Street, Prestwich.
Half a mile down Kings Road, the continuation of George Street, I heard repeated noises, which I thought were fireworks exploding. Not being fully awake, I wondered why people were letting off fireworks at that time of the morning. Eventually I looked out of my window and saw a huge blaze topped by enormous clouds of smoke darkening the early morning sunshine.
The scene reminded me of the horrific pictures of Buncefield oil depot last month. In shock, I decided to dress quickly in case I needed to evacuate my property.
King David Junior School music teacher Carol Jason who lives across the road from the industrial state, in George Street, was in bed when a huge explosion shook her house.
She said: "Remembering the earthquakes of three years ago, I thought there had been another earthquake and wondered whether my house was going to fall down".
"I was trying to decide which musical instrument to take with me".
But, unlike residents of Fairways Lodge hotel, which was adjacent to the fire, Mrs Jason was not evacuated from her property.
Fire station commander Ian Bailey said that the firework-like sounds were probably asbestos roof sheeting popping. The explosion noise was the sound of the building collapsing.
Firefighters in-formed Bury Environmental Protection of the asbestos risk.
Yesterday, head of Bury Environmental Protection Bill Rees told the Jewish Telegraph that anyone in the surrounding area in Prestwich and neighbouring Salford should look out for asbestos pieces and asbestos dust.
He said: "If you find grey pieces of asbestos cement, put them in a plastic bag. Telephone 253 5566 and we will collect. If you don’t want to touch the asbestos, just phone us".
White asbestos dust on clothes and cars should be washed off.
He said: "Those around the area on Wednesday were exposed to a low level of asbestos in the air. Although one fibre of asbestos can be dangerous, the risk is very minimal contrasted with those who had medical effects from working industrially with asbestos".
Avi Mechlowitz, who has family connections with several of the affected businesses and was on site on Wednesday, was not overly concerned about the asbestos scare, saying he would wash his clothes as advised.
Mr Mechlowitz, who owns NLG Footwear and is a partner in ITD Logistics, said: "The important thing is there were no fatalities".
"It is not the best thing to wake up to in the morning, but we have to move forward. There are issues of stock. But we are insured. We have all found new adjacent premises and are able to continue in business".
Other companies, which rented the asbestos-covered unit were Brite Power batteries, owned by Avi’s brother Gigi Mechlowitz, the Cavden clothing group, owned by Howard Moher and Promotion and Display Technology, owned by Dovid Holder and Avi’s father Marcus Mechlowitz.
An adjacent a medical charity, MedEquip4Kids was affected by smoke damage. Chairman of the trustees Brian White said: "Fortunately, with computers people can work from home". The fire service is still investigating the cause of the fire.
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