Children 'heartbroken' after dance school destroyed by fire

The owner of a dance school said she has been "left with nothing" after her studio was reduced to rubble following a fire.

Liv Flanagan, 29, from Middleton, in Greater Manchester, has been the owner of Flex Dance Studios since setting up the business at the Lodge Mill in 2023.

The dance teacher spent thousands of pounds renovating the studio and buying specialist equipment to kit it out for the 150 pupils on her books. But after a fire broke out at the Townley Street building on 29 March, Liv said she has lost everything and described the children as "completely heartbroken".

"Everything we had was in that studio," Liv told BBC Radio Manchester. "It is literally just a pile of bricks now."

Liv first found out about the fire at the mill when a friend sent her a video.

"It was horrendous to see," Liv said. "I knew just from watching it that there would be nothing left of the studio."

After the fire was put out, a section of the building was deemed unsalvageable and demolition works began on Tuesday, 31 March.

"There is completely nothing left of it at all now," Liv said "I did go down on the Wednesday and it had been demolished fully down to the ground."

"It feels crazy," Liv continued. "I feel like I just don't know what to do with myself every day.

"I'm used to being on the go at 100 miles an hour and being down at the studio and this last week - it just seems to feel worse each day.

"It's been tough."

"The air tracks stand at about three grand a piece, we had two of those - we're definitely talking tens of thousands that we are down," Liv said.

"But it is more all of the sentimental items that we've lost - all of the competition team's trophies, all their pictures that they've made that we had up on the wall.

"That has hit the hardest.

"I don't think everything's fully clicked yet of what's actually lost."

Liv said that the loss of the studio has been particularly hard for the children who she teaches.

"With the nature of our business, it's not just us who we have to pick up the pieces for - it's the kids," she said. "The children have still got no space to dance.

"They cannot understand it and they're just completely heartbroken.

"They think that they're never going to be able to to come back or they're never going to be able to to go see their friends again.

"All that upset is definitely the worst part of it.

"The studio was their happy place - some of them come two three times a week - straight from school and on a Saturday morning - they've described it as their second home.

"It is literally their life, and I think it took this to happening for me to realise just how much of an impact we were having."

Liv said she has received some "lovely" offers from locals in the community - who have offered up spaces to host dance lessons - but does not know what the future will hold in the long-term with no permanent venue secured.

"My main priority is to get those kids back together," Liv added.

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