A woman has told of the pain of losing everything she had left from her mum and dad after a fire destroyed a self-storage unit on New Years Eve.
Narise Joyram lost both her parents five years ago to illness and only moved the things they left behind from another storage space 10 days ago.
Narise, 20, stressed that shes not an emotional person, but broke down in tears as she told Metro.co.uk: I dont have them and now I dont have any of their stuff.
The recruitment consultant only recently had access to her things again after the owner of another unit held her things captive over a payment row.
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She stored her things in Croydon Shurgard self-storage just over a week before the warehouse in Purley Way caught fire on New Years Eve and completely destroyed the building and all the items in the 1,198 occupied units.
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Narise, who is originally from north London, said: I had started over, I finally had my little life in Croydon, with my partner and my best friend, I have a new job.
But now I have lost what was left of my parents. I have nothing left of my family. No money they could give me can replace what Ive lost.
I dont get emotional, but this is killing me.
Narise moved her things in a rush just in time to enjoy the holidays, but was not able to go through them properly.
She said: I put my tree up on Christmas Eve, thats how tight it has been, I was gonna go through the things when I put my Christmas decorations back in the New Year.
London Fire Brigade sent 120 firefighters and 20 fire engines to the scene when they were called around 7.45pm on 31 December.
Narise added: I didnt grieve the death of my parents because I still had their stuff and I cant explain the relief I felt when I finally put the things somewhere I could “visit them”, but now Im back to square one again.
She was not able to see any of the items for two years before she moved them to the Shurgard unit.
She explained: It was a silly scenario. The woman was like a mother to me and she said I could keep my things in her storage for free if I helped clear it out.
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Narise said her partner took time off work and together they helped clear the storage, but when they both returned to their jobs, the owner held it against us that we didnt help.
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Narise added: She wouldnt let me get to it.
She has now lost everything from a three-bedroom house, all her baby pictures, her favourite blanket, videos, memorabilia from her parents and their travels, in the fire.
She added: This is a different kind of pain, I cant function. I literally put everything in there and its all gone.
She said she didnt care about the China, antiques or the fancy stuff, but said losing the sentimental values of her mums wedding dress and the pictures on her iMac, which was left in the unit, was the most painful.
Narise was left an orphan when her mum died of breast cancer when she was 15, before her dad past away from a liver disease 14-months later.
Narise said Shurgard only informed her about the fire over email, and like Crispin Lewis, who also spoke out about losing his belongings, said they would contact her within 48 hours.
She decided to think about getting insurance over Christmas, after splashing out on the unit, but added: The things have not been damaged, theyve been destroyed.
Shes now waiting to hear back from the company and is considering to take legal action against Shurgard.
A Shurgard spokesperson said in a statement yesterday: The entire building has been destroyed.
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The care for its customers of the 1,198 rented units at the Croydon Purley Way store is the first priority for Shurgard.
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Shurgard will undertake every effort to support all customers for which the event means a loss of their stored goods.
As a first measure a dedicated Shurgard team will be contacting every customer of the store within the next 48 hours to help them and support them with their claim procedures.
Have you lost anything in the Shugard Croydon fire?
Have you been affected by the Purley Way Shurgard Croydon self-storage fire on New Years Eve?
Contact [email protected], if you want to share your story.
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