Top store gets fire safety advice

Two teams of firefighters spent 20 minutes tackling a blaze at the rear of W.H. Smith's Devonshire Road store at lunchtime on Monday.

Sub Officer Peter Everett said: "The staff had been very good because they had received training. The store had been evacuated and closed at the front.

"There was a lot of smoke coming from the rear of the premises where someone was tackling the blaze with a fire extinguisher.

"He had been welding metal stairs leading to a store room. But there was a stack of flammable material under the stairs.

"It was stacked paper and there was the potential for a very serious fire."

Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus tackled the blaze and cleared the stored material.

Sub Officer Everett said the company had been advised to carry out immediate improvements in fire safety. "There were other fire hazards that were evident.

"There was the potential there for a very big fire."