Greater Manchester in Focus: Fire Safety, Risk and Compliance
Greater Manchester is the most densely developed city-region in the North of England. Manchester city centre alone has more than 600 high-rise buildings, a figure exceeded in the UK only by London, and the pace of new residential and commercial construction across the city-region shows no sign of slowing. Beyond the city centre, the range of building stock is substantial: Victorian and Edwardian terraces converted to houses in multiple occupation across Fallowfield, Rusholme, Hulme, Moss Side and Withington; major logistics and warehousing estates in Trafford Park, Openshaw, Leigh and Wythenshawe; an extensive concentration of student accommodation around the University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University in M13 and M14; heritage mills and former industrial buildings in various stages of conversion, reuse or dereliction across the inner boroughs; and a city centre hospitality sector spanning Spinningfields, the Northern Quarter, Deansgate and the NOMA district that generates one of the highest concentrations of late-night public occupancy in the North.
For responsible persons across all of these premises — whether employers, landlords, managing agents or building owners — the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 places a direct legal duty to carry out a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment and to keep it under regular review. If you manage or occupy premises in the city and need to commission or review that assessment, our fire risk assessments in Manchester page sets out how we work and what to expect. Three incidents across Greater Manchester, each with confirmed footage, illustrate the breadth of fire risk that responsible persons here are managing.
Major Fire, Hotspur Press, Cambridge Street, Manchester M15 — June 2025
On the afternoon of Monday 23 June 2025, Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service were called to a major fire at the Hotspur Press building on Cambridge Street, Manchester, at around 4.30pm. A major incident was declared. At the height of the blaze, more than 20 fire engines and two aerial units from across Greater Manchester, together with colleagues from neighbouring fire and rescue services, were in attendance, with more than 100 firefighters on scene. Three floors of the building were alight simultaneously. The fire spread to the balconies of two adjacent residential tower blocks at 1 Cambridge Street, and GMFRS took the decision to evacuate all residents from both buildings. Firefighters worked to ensure all occupants made it out safely and no injuries to residents were reported. Train services through Oxford Road station were cancelled and Oxford Street was closed in both directions as the incident developed. Crews worked through the night to bring the fire under control, and the major incident was lifted shortly after 9pm. A joint investigation between GMFRS and Greater Manchester Police was launched, but it was not possible to carry out a thorough forensic investigation due to the extent of structural damage, and no cause could be established.
The building involved was the Hotspur Press, a Victorian mill on Cambridge Street dating from the late nineteenth century, considered one of the oldest mill buildings remaining in Manchester. It had formerly operated as a printing press, later housed artist studios and creative workspace, and had been largely vacant since the late 2010s. Permission had been granted in 2024 for its conversion to a 37-storey student accommodation block, with proposals still being revised at the time of the fire.
The fire at the Hotspur Press building, Cambridge Street, Manchester, 23 June 2025. Video: YouTube.
The Hotspur Press fire illustrates two compliance points that are easy to underestimate. The first is that a fire originating in an adjacent building — one that the responsible person has no control over — can force the evacuation of an entire residential block within the same incident. The two residential towers at 1 Cambridge Street were not on fire; but the fire service's decision to evacuate them was correct given the scale of what was happening next door, and managing agents responsible for those buildings had to respond to that situation in real time. A fire risk assessment that only considers hazards within the assessed building's own walls is not a complete assessment. For any premises adjacent to a vacant or construction-phase building in Greater Manchester's rapidly developing city centre, the assessment should address what a major external fire means for the escape strategy — whether evacuation routes on the affected side of the building remain viable, whether residents would receive adequate warning, and whether the evacuation plan covers an externally-originating scenario. The second point is the duty that falls on the owner or controller of a vacant building. Even a building that is empty and awaiting development remains subject to fire safety obligations. The FSO requires that the person in control of non-domestic premises, including vacant ones, takes general fire precautions. Where a building has been vacant for years, with no active fire detection, no maintained compartmentation and no security preventing unauthorised access, the conditions for a large fire are materially worse — and the consequences can extend well beyond the vacant building itself.
Clarendon Leisure Centre Fire, Liverpool Street, Salford M6 — May 2024
In the early hours of Friday 10 May 2024, Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service were called to a major fire at Clarendon Leisure Centre on Liverpool Street in Salford, at approximately 2.45am. Eight fire engines from across Greater Manchester, together with the command support unit, prime mover and technical response unit, attended. Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus used hose reels and jets to bring the fire under control and prevent further spread. Road closures were put in place on Albion Way, Liverpool Street and Fitzwarren Street. Crews remained at the scene damping down throughout Friday, with the fire brought under control during the morning. No casualties were reported.
Clarendon Leisure Centre had served the local community for over forty years, managed by Salford Community Leisure on behalf of the council. At the time of the fire, the centre was partway through a significant refurbishment programme — the gym and sports hall had been closed for works and were due to reopen the following month, while the swimming pool had only recently returned to use after its own works. The centre sustained significant damage. Greater Manchester Police launched an investigation, describing the fire as suspicious and appealing for witnesses and CCTV footage. A full investigation into the cause was underway at the time of publication.
Fire at Clarendon Leisure Centre, Liverpool Street, Salford, 10 May 2024. Video: YouTube.
The Clarendon fire raises two issues that apply to any public or community building undergoing refurbishment. The first is arson risk. Community buildings — leisure centres, sports halls, community hubs — are statistically among the more frequently targeted categories of building when it comes to deliberate fire-setting, in part because they can be a focus of anti-social behaviour and in part because they may have extended periods without active occupancy, particularly during overnight and weekend hours. During a refurbishment, when parts of the building may be closed and the usual patterns of occupancy are disrupted, that risk can be elevated. A fire risk assessment that was written for normal operational use should be reviewed when a significant refurbishment begins, and the review should address the changed occupancy pattern, the presence of combustible construction materials and temporary works, and whether the security and access controls are adequate for the works phase. The second issue is what the suspension of active fire safety systems during works means for the overall protection of the building. A fire that starts at 2.45am in a building without its normal detection systems operational is unlikely to be discovered until it is already well-developed. The evacuation plan and emergency procedures must reflect the changed circumstances during a refurbishment, not just the normal operational baseline.
House Fire, Langdale Road, Victoria Park, Manchester M14 — March 2025
In March 2025, Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service were called to a significant fire at a residential property on Langdale Road in the Victoria Park area of south Manchester. Footage captured by the Manchester Evening News showed a substantial blaze at a property on the street, with crews in attendance. The fire attracted wide local coverage.
Langdale Road sits in the M14 postcode area of Victoria Park, a neighbourhood whose housing stock is dominated by large Victorian and Edwardian terraced houses, many of them converted to houses in multiple occupation serving the significant student population of the nearby University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University. The street is among those covered by Manchester City Council's Article 4 direction, which removes permitted development rights that would otherwise allow the conversion of a standard dwelling to a small HMO without planning permission — a measure reflecting the concentration of shared houses already in the area. Properties on Langdale Road are routinely marketed as five and six-bedroom student lets.
Fire at a residential property on Langdale Road, Victoria Park, Manchester, March 2025. Video: Manchester Evening News / YouTube.
Victoria Park and the surrounding south Manchester neighbourhoods — Fallowfield, Rusholme, Hulme, Withington, Moss Side and Ardwick — contain one of the highest concentrations of HMOs in the North of England. The building stock is predominantly Victorian and Edwardian terraced housing, originally designed as large single-family dwellings and subsequently converted, often informally and over a long period, to multi-occupancy use. These conversions bring specific fire risks that a competent fire risk assessment must address: original timber floor and staircase construction, which allows fire and smoke to travel between floors with limited resistance; limited or absent compartmentation between rooms and between the staircase and habitable spaces; kitchens shared between multiple occupants who may not know each other and who may cook at different hours; and a high turnover of occupants who may be unfamiliar with what to do in the event of a fire. Under Manchester City Council's selective licensing scheme, which covers a number of wards across the inner city, most shared houses of three or more unrelated persons in the designated areas require a licence. The licensing conditions impose specific requirements around fire alarm grades, fire door specifications and emergency lighting that go beyond the FSO's general "suitable and sufficient" test. Landlords of HMOs in these areas are responsible for meeting both sets of requirements, and the HMO fire safety duties that apply are more prescriptive than those for most other residential property. Where properties have five or more occupiers and three or more storeys — a common configuration in the large terraced houses of Victoria Park — they are subject to mandatory HMO licensing nationally, regardless of any selective licensing scheme. Fire door inspections in these buildings are particularly important, since the fire doors between the kitchen, the ground-floor accommodation and the staircase are frequently the only passive protection available to occupants trying to escape.
Fire Safety Duties for Responsible Persons Across Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester's range of building stock creates a wide and varied set of fire safety obligations, and some of the most significant are worth addressing directly.
HMOs, student housing and the Article 4 direction areas. Manchester City Council's Article 4 directions covering Fallowfield, Withington, Rusholme, Moss Side, Hulme and Ardwick mean that any new HMO conversion in those areas requires full planning permission, and local concentration policies can refuse it where density is already high. The selective licensing scheme imposes specific fire safety conditions on licensed properties. Landlords operating in these areas should ensure their fire risk assessments reflect the specific conversion history of the property, the actual occupancy pattern and any changes in the number of occupiers, not just the theoretical maximum the licence allows.
High-rise residential and cladding remediation. Greater Manchester has more high-rise residential buildings than any UK city outside London, and GMFRS has been at the forefront of the national drive to address unsafe cladding and fire safety defects in those buildings. The Greater Manchester Remediation Acceleration Plan 2025–2029 sets out how the city-region is working to speed up the removal of unsafe cladding. Managing agents responsible for residential blocks in Greater Manchester — whether in the city centre, Salford Quays, Ancoats or the wider boroughs — should be familiar with their obligations under the Building Safety Act 2022 in addition to the FSO, and should ensure that fire risk assessments of common parts are up to date, that flat entrance doors have been inspected regularly, and that the evacuation strategy reflects the actual condition of the building rather than its theoretical design basis. Fire door inspections for flat entrance doors are now a legal requirement in high-rise residential buildings under the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022.
Warehousing and logistics. Greater Manchester has one of the most significant concentrations of logistics and manufacturing premises in England, including Trafford Park, Openshaw, Wythenshawe and Leigh. We have covered some of the issues arising in major warehouse fires in a dedicated piece on the Trafford Park factory fire. The key obligations for warehouse and logistics operators under the FSO include specific risk assessment of high fire load, the detection and suppression arrangements in high-bay racking environments, the evacuation of large open-plan floor areas, and the management of arson risk at yard and loading areas. Warehouse fire safety requirements in large single-occupier premises and multi-tenant industrial estates are not identical, and the assessment should be specific to the actual configuration and occupancy of the building.
City centre commercial, hospitality and the night-time economy. The concentration of bars, restaurants, hotels and live music venues across the Northern Quarter, Deansgate, Spinningfields and the NOMA district creates a significant hospitality fire safety obligation. Hotels and venues with sleeping accommodation carry heightened duties, and the density of public occupancy in the city centre's late-night economy requires evacuation plans that account for large numbers of unfamiliar occupants. Fire safety training for staff — including seasonal, part-time and agency staff — is a legal requirement under Article 21 of the FSO and is among the most commonly inadequate elements found during GMFRS enforcement inspections in the hospitality sector.
Managing agents and multi-occupier office and commercial buildings. Spinningfields, NOMA and the wider city centre commercial core contain a substantial number of multi-occupier office and mixed-use buildings where duties under Article 22 of the FSO require responsible persons to cooperate and coordinate with each other on fire safety. Our service for managing agents covers how we approach these buildings and what the process typically involves. The foundation across all sectors remains the same: a written fire risk assessment by a competent assessor, a documented fire safety policy, a tested evacuation plan, regular fire door inspections where passive fire protection is part of the strategy, and fire safety training for all staff. Where any occupants may not be able to self-evacuate, evacuation chair training for relevant personnel is an increasingly expected provision.
Fire Safety Support for Manchester and Greater Manchester
Fletcher Risk Management provides fire risk assessments in Manchester for responsible persons across the city, from HMO landlords in Fallowfield and Rusholme to managing agents responsible for city centre commercial blocks and hospitality operators in the Northern Quarter and Deansgate. We cover the wider city-region through our Greater Manchester service and our full range: fire door inspections, fire safety training, evacuation plans, fire safety policies and evacuation chair training.
If you manage a residential block, a mixed-use building or a multi-occupier commercial premises, our service for managing agents sets out how we work and what that process involves. If your premises is a licensed HMO, our HMO fire safety service covers the specific requirements that apply, including the interaction with licensing conditions.
Fire safety support across the North West and North Wales
Fletcher Risk Management provides fire risk assessments, fire door inspections and fire safety training for responsible persons across Chester, Cheshire, the Wirral, Merseyside, Greater Manchester, North Wales and beyond. To discuss your requirements, please get in touch.
This article is intended for general guidance only and does not constitute legal advice. Responsible persons should seek professional advice tailored to their specific premises and circumstances. Fletcher Risk Management Ltd provides fire risk assessments, fire door inspections, and fire safety training across the North West and North Wales.