Stafford Global Hygiene blaze: Life's work of late musician lost
A woman has been left distraught after her late-husband’s life’s work was destroyed in a blaze at a storage firm.
Thousands of pounds worth of published books, research documents and ‘irreplaceable’ music manuscripts, which once belonged to musician and author Michael Raven, were among scores of items that went up in smoke at Goodwins Removals in Stafford.
The storage firm at Astonfields Industrial Estate was ripped apart by fire after flames spread from Global Hygiene next door in March last year.
Now Mr Raven’s widow Eve has put in a £23,000 claim for compensation against Global but said she is still waiting for it to be dealt with.
She said: “It is very, very upsetting. It was my husband’s life’s work; handwritten music, his research, 1,000 copies of his last book West Midlands Ballads and music manuscripts, which were absolutely irreplaceable.
“There were a lot of music CDs and cassettes, which you could buy with the books, as well that have all gone. The £23,000 is just to cover the cost of printing the books, the true value of everything is a lot more.”
Mr Raven, originally from Wolverhampton before later living in Market Drayton, was a well-known folk artist figure in the Midlands.
He died in 2008, aged 70, from pneumonia.
At the time of his death Mr Raven had separated from Eve, although they still got on very well and she carried on working for him.
After selling his house she moved his belongings over to Stafford and placed them in storage at Goodwins, while she has since moved to West Sussex.
It was several days before Mrs Raven learned of the devastating fire and since then her lawyer has been embroiled in a battle to gain compensation.
Goodwins had no part in the cause of the fire, which was an accident. She said: “I phoned up one day to query an invoice and they said ‘oh you have heard about the fire’.
“It was a week after, I had no idea, no-one had told me. Since then we have tried calling, emailing and texting Goodwins ever since and have got nowhere.”
In July the Environment Agency stated after a lengthy investigation no further action would be taken against Global Hygiene describing the fire as ‘accidental’.
A spokeswoman from Global Hygiene said: “We have passed on Mrs Raven’s concerns to our insurance company, since the claim was raised.”
