A devastating fire that swept through an apartment block sent local agents into overdrive as they worked round the clock to help tenants made homeless.

More than 100 firefighters, along with police and ambulance crews from over three counties, battled to tackle the blaze and lead people to safety after 200 residents were evacuated from the Wharfside development in Wigan.

Dave Roberts and his team at Belvoir Wigan were among the agents that immediately swung into action.

A total of 133 apartments were directly affected and around a third of the people living in the complex are unlikely to return. For safety reasons, one block had to be demolished.

Along with Roberts, lettings manager Helen Rowberry, with colleagues Caroline Walsh and Joanne Hill, dealt with a deluge of calls and people queuing outside the office for help and guidance.

Hill said: “This was a full blown crisis situation.

“We had 52 people in tenancy but were also approached by other residents looking for new accommodation.

“Up to 40 people from other agencies asked us to help and the biggest challenge was trying to find suitable alternative accommodation.

“As well as trying to find new accommodation for those tenants who could not return we were also kept very busy arranging the release of deposits and refunds on rent owed to them, working well into each evening to get through it all.”

Roberts said: “This was a very intense period of activity and the team did a magnificent job of pulling together to sort out a wide range of issues, not only for tenants, but also in communicating developments to landlord clients.

“Although the initial barrage of problems was sorted out very quickly we are still, even now, picking up some of the threads from the event.

“All of our existing rental stock in that particular part of the town was taken immediately, and since then we have managed to re-house a total of 32 people.”