Two weeks ago on the way to university I noticed a huge plume of black smoke, it was being produced by a large fire on Sunbeam Street, Wolverhampton. A large set of factory units had been destroyed and today I was able to get back with my drone to capture some scenes of the damage. It was heartbreaking to see that the place had been ruined, but thankfully nobody was injured. I captured some of the details on camera in this post at the time.
Also amazing is that the West Midlands Fire Service (WMFS) had been able to prevent it spreading to the other units nearby as they are so very close.
Flight Time
I drove to Sunbeam Street or Upper Villiers Street after finishing uni for the day and launched the DJI Mini 4 Pro from the road nearby, the streets are still closed off in some cases.
I went up high first to get an overview of the site and it was plain to see the devastation caused by the fire. The cause of the fire is still unknown at the moment according to the WMFS. The steel work used to keep up the corrugated roofing was all twisted, the roofing collapsed to the floor beneath, the floor was then covered over by thousands of bricks that have caved in too as the fire made the most of its resources.
I flew high and did some shots of the surrounding buildings before coming in lower to capture the details of some of the areas affected. Then I got lower and turned the camera horizontal to make some images of the triangular/sawtooth wall styles and the layers of destruction from one bay to the next.
Always nervous to get too low in case I clip a cable or an errant wall or something I didn’t take it too low down. It was still evident that you could see where posters had been taped onto the walls or the electrical switchgear had been melted off the wall, but it was difficult to make out any product or material in the wasteland. There was a furniture manufacturers in here and also a quilting company but it is impossible to tell where or what they were making. I am sure there were many other small industries in there too and its terrible to think that someone’s way of earning money has been lost to this event.
Why did I film it and take photos then?
I think it is important to document these events, the outcome of them and then revisit once the work is underway and even completed to see how it has been transformed. Colleagues and uni staff agreed that it would be an interesting topic to photograph too and as there was no physical injury or likely to be any bodies in the ruins I felt no real issue with it.
Publishing these photos and the short video I made helps others to see what has happened in their neighbourhood and to understand what their friends or families might be going through. Obviously the WMFS have been posting drone photos of the events and I left it until there was no chance they would still be flying in the area before heading back.
The gallery of photos beneath features some of the photos I made using the drone camera. If you have any comments or concerns please contact me using the links at the top of the page.
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