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Property owners devastated after fire at self-storage facility
The cause of the fire is still unknown, but the assistant chief said it was particularly difficult to manage due to the building's layout and the metal that retained heat. Although only one building with 80 units was affected, we've seen people all day distraught about losing what they had.
ROCHESTER, Mich. (FOX 2) - Firefighters battled for over nine hours to extinguish a blaze that ripped through a Rochester storage facility, leaving 80 units destroyed.
The damaged units contained everything from sentimental photos to business items.
What they're saying:
The cause of the fire is still unknown, but the assistant chief said it was particularly difficult to manage due to the building's layout and the metal that retained heat. Although only one building with 80 units was affected, we've seen people all day distraught about losing what they had.
FOX 2 spoke with one business owner who says she lost $30,000 worth of valuables. Many of the items have been emptied out of the storage units, sopping wet and covered in ash.
A new mother spoke with FOX 2 and was hopeful her unit wasn't affected since hers was way in the back, but unfortunately, she came here and saw it was a total loss.
"I was working on opening a small business, so I had a large checkout desk," said unit owner Rachel Stanko. "I had a large square unit for doing sales and transactions. A lot of other stuff I use for sales during spring months. Yeah, some important stuff. Any ideas on how you can recover from that? I didn’t have insurance on it. I wasn’t planning to have it there for that long; I just had to make some room for our new baby you can hear in the back, and no, I’m not sure how we can really recover from that."
"I’m sure there’s nothing left. I know there’s nothing left. With the smoke and the water. I need to start fresh and start over. You just gotta pick it up and keep going on," said unit owner Kerrie Beckwith. "There’s so many things in there that mean the world to me. My mom’s diamond earrings."
Dig deeper:
Fire investigators are working to determine the cause of the fire.
Sto-Away posted online, saying its office will remain closed until they’ve been told it’s safe to let people in.
They are working hard with the insurance company to ensure they can provide answers to tenants.
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