An artist has opened up about the devastation that the Belfast city centre fire has caused for her and other creatives who lost their 'life's work' overnight.
On Monday, emergency services tackled a blaze at the Old Cathedral Building on Donegall Street that has left businesses "homeless" as their studio spaces and offices were destroyed.
Artist and Designer Jennifer Mehigan, who rented a space in the building for her studio, told Belfast Live that the incident was 'worse than a housefire' for her as 15 years of her work was gone in an instant.
Read more: Fire service tackle blaze in Belfast
Jennifer said: "I came to the space with 343 who are a queer DIY collective that used to be based in East Belfast and they opened in the space across the hall. We had been kicked out of previous buildings by developers - we finally found a good building where we paid business-level rent and rates.
"This morning, my friend who was a tenant in the studio across the hall left me a message right before I woke up and then I got a horrible text that said 'please call me back straight away'."
Jennifer's primary income comes from the work she creates in the space affected by the fire.
"I've been making work since I was 18 and I'm 33 now so all of that is gone and all my sketchbooks and my research and any notebooks I ever had are gone. My family photographs - negatives of photos I took when I was 10 all that stuff was kept in there.
"It feels worse than a housefire to me, to be honest," she explained.
A number of other creatives and businesses also operated from the Old Cathedral Building and have all been left in shock by what unfolded before them on Monday.
One illustrator took to social media to share how every sketchbook, piece of equipment, iMac computer and work they had ever owned or created was lost in the blaze - which they described as their 'entire livelihood.
Jennifer continued: "All the tenants were there this morning and we were all just really unable to comprehend it but it is pretty obvious that anyone who is above street level stuff is just gone now, it's ash.
"I believe there is a concrete layer between our part of the building and the bottom floor so we are hoping that at least Never Never, Neighbourhood, the tailor and all the businesses running along the bottom will hopefully be able to operate and get their income back."
The fire is currently being treated as suspected arson at this time and police have arrested an 18-year-old man on suspicion of arson endangering life with intent. He remains in police custody at this time.
"I haven't processed it yet. I am putting all my energy into what I can do now because there will just be years of processing this and losing all those things," Jennifer added.
A GoFundMe page was created in order to support the tenants who had their livelihoods taken from them overnight and in a number of hours, over £5,000 has been raised so far.
Jennifer said: "People are so generous. I think it can be hard for people who don't make art to maybe put a value on it but it is too much to even think about for us.
"This is stuff that we can't ever get back so this will help us have at least a month's breathing space because we aren't going to be able to pay our bills now. People have been so kind in offering us spaces but the problem is we have nothing to put in them now."
If you would like to donate to the fund for artists and creatives who lost their work in the fire, see here.
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