In March 2004 a fire broke out in an old storeroom at Underworld when Janice Battersby sneaked in there to smoke an illicit cigarette and dropped her stub onto a pile of clothing. With Mike Baldwin was on the golf course at the time, Nick Tilsley was in charge of the premises however he has distracted by his recent break-up from girlfriend Maria Sutherland and was talking through his problems with his mother when the conflagration began. The other girls had their radio turned up loud and were unable to hear Janice's screams. The automatic fire alarm being set off by the smoke was the first indication that something was wrong and the fire service was called. The premises were evacuated before the firemen arrived and a quick count established who was missing. Nick had returned and he impulsively returned to the burning building to rescue his ex-mother-in-law, managing to carry her outside but both inhaling smoke in the process.
At that point the fire appliance arrived, the flames were extinguished and the two casualties were taken to Weatherfield General where they soon recovered. When Mike returned to his factory towards the end of the day, the first sign he saw that something was wrong was when a Policeman stopped him and told him that the road was closed because of the fire. Mike looked over his shoulder from the seat of his Jaguar, pointed out that premises were his and was allowed through to take stock of the damage.