Late on the evening of Thursday 18th May, a fire started in the Access Self Storage facility on Oyster Lane, Byfleet, which quickly took hold and spread to adjacent businesses. Surrey Fire & Rescue closed Oyster Lane, the main road access to the Chertsey Road business park where our depot is located.
Thankfully, there seem to have been no serious injuries caused by the fire which has to be down to the incredible work of our Emergency Services; their ability to muster such resources, over 10 units at one point, and contain the blaze to stop it spreading to the petrol station next door to the Access building, averted a disaster which could have been far-reaching for the local community.
The fire also engulfed the Screwfix & Halfords buildings and took out the mains power supply, this impacted all homes & businesses local to the fire and took with it all our emails, phone lines and internet but repairs could not commence until the fire was under control and it was safe for engineers to work their magic!
Our depot team were evacuated as the fire was slowly moving in our direction but thankfully, our building was not damaged and none of the freight in our depot & storage facilities was affected.
Thankfully, the efforts of the fire crews & power engineers meant that systems were restored early afternoon on Saturday, it was then down to Wey Group Operations & IT to get us back online and reopen the phone lines and draft in additional resources to make sure that operationally, we could recover and deliver & collect as our customers would expect.
By Tuesday the 23rd May, we were back on track with deliveries & collections being made to our normal, high standards and by Wednesday morning, everything was back to normal.
I thank you all for your considerable patience & understanding on Friday, I guess these things are sent to try us but once again, the team at Byfleet have shown their professionalism & commitment to pull out the stops and minimise the disruption to you, our valued customers.
Finally, I must express my relief that no one lost their life or was seriously injured, the Police & Fire & Rescues Services ability to manage incidents such as this and restrict the impact is incredible and deserves our heartfelt thanks,
Chris Jacobs
Managing Director