'You imagine there would be a lot of barking, but it was silent'

It was the silence Colin Ballance remembers the most. As a devastating fire ripped through Manchester Dogs' Home an eerie quiet descended.

Colin lives next to the home in Harpurhey. So when the blaze, which was lit deliberately, broke out on September 11, 2014, he was the first person on the scene.

He bravely managed to rescue a greyhound and bull terrier from the kennels before the flames became too fierce to go back inside. But tragically 60 other dogs died in the darkest day in the home's 130 year history.

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"It was 7.10pm," said Colin, who has worked at the home for 37 years. "I got a phone call from the alarm company saying one of the detectors had activated.

"I walked down to the kennels and at first I thought someone had set a car on fire round the back. But I looked through the window and it was glowing. I have never seen an orange like it.

"I opened the door, I got two dogs out. With it being an old building it was timber roof, so the fire was really going.

"I was going to go back in, but then all of a sudden I got an arm on my shoulder. It was the fire brigade. They said 'If you go back down there you won't come back'."

As firefighters battled the flames, Colin and other staff who had arrived at the home were forced to watch on helplessly. It was, says Colin, 'the hardest night ever'.

"It was silent," he said. "There was no noise. You imagine there would be a lot of barking, but it was quiet. You get a sense of what's happening. You know these dogs aren't going to get out.

"All those dogs were up for rehoming. They all had a chance of getting a home. But unfortunately that night, that chance was taken away from them."

Colin wasn't the only one who rushed to help. Passers-by and neighbours living