The fire at the disused mill on Bengal Street started at around 9.40pm last night and crews worked throughout the night to prevent it spreading to the nearby Beehive Mill and the Sankeys Soap night club.
Thick black smoke from the burning warehouse was clearly visible a mile away in Manchester city centre. A team of 65 fire fighters had put out the fire by the early hours. No one was injured in the blaze and there were no evacuations.
A spokesman for Greater Manchester Fire Brigade said: "Part of the building had collapsed and fire fighting operations were made difficult by the large amount of burning embers being emitted from the fire.
"Water was pumped to the scene from the Rochdale Canal."
Around a quarter of the building collapsed this morning and a cordon was in place in Bengal Street and Radium Street due to the risk of further parts of the building collapsing.
Nearby Murray Street, Hood Street and Blossom Street were also closed this morning while a police and fire service investigation got under way to establish the cause of the fire.
Police said the road closures would affect some small businesses inside the cordon but disruption caused by the investigation would be as minimal as possible. Firefighters were damping down at the scene today.
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