Carers step into the unknown after blaze destroys office

The fire at the offices of Charter Care on Linthouse Lane, Wednesfield, during the early hours of Sunday morning, destroying years of paperwork as well as the premises itself.

Medical records, staff checks, invoices, risk assessment sheets and various other crucial documents were destroyed, as well as medication intended for people who depend on the care of the 80 members of staff who used the office as their base.

Eight years of documentation went up in flames and now staff will have to start again at the company's Oldbury office.

The firm looks after people across Wolverhampton, Walsall and Sandwell.

Angela Hartill, who manages the business, said: "We are just going to have to take this week as it comes, it is such an unexpected situation.

"The girls will just have to turn up and take it from there because there is no set in stone plan to bounce back for something like this.

"Even though we do have a branch in Oldbury, everything was done from the Wednesfield office.

"All the physical files that were destroyed are also kept on a hard drive, which was also in the building.

"The fire crews have already told us that nothing is salvageable from the building, it is completely written off and will have to be knocked down.

"It is horrible to think that the place where we have all met up and worked from over the years has been reduced to nothing.

"Of course we are lucky that no one was in the building at the time, which is something we are thankful for despite this setback."

Mrs Harthill says despite the loss of important data, patients will not be affected.

She said: "The one thing that this isn't going to change is the service we provide to our clients.

"We do keep a lot of schedules online so we know what our plans are, it is just keeping track of what we have done, which is crucial to this job."

As well as inconveniencing current members of staff, prospective carers have had the brakes put on their progress as training sessions which had been running at the office for a number of years have been cancelled."

Watch Commander Tony Jackson said it was clear as soon as crews arrived that there was nothing they could do save the building.

He said: "Our priority quickly became protecting the other businesses that joined on to the office.

"If we had been called in later the fire could have taken four businesses down with it."

The blaze took place just days after arsonists attacked St Albans Primary School, located just under a mile away on St Albans Close.

It is believed to have started after vandals accessed the flat roof and set fire to a disused water tank.

As a result, nursery pupils will be accommodated at nearby The Hub at Ashmore Park next week while reception and Year 1-4 children will be at Berrybrook Primary School, while Year 5 and Year 6 children will study at Coppice High School.

Councillor Rita Potter, who represents Wednesfield North, said she and her constituents were in 'total shock' at the two fires taking place in such a short space of time.

She said: "I am in a state of total shock at how much has gone on over the last couple of days in this area.

"I simply cannot believe that two major fires have took place over the space of a couple of days.

"We know that the fire at St Albans was deliberate and if it comes out that this was the same, then it is very concerning.

"Aside from the obvious cost implications and the sadness of each particular situation, you have the disruption of important services.

"I have faith that the police and fire services will get to the bottom of this and we can sleep safely then."