Customers evacuated from store

More than 1,000 shoppers and staff were evacuated from a Telford supermarket after a fire broke out in a warehouse.

The alarms were set off at Morrisons in Spring Hill, Wellington, yesterday afternoon.

Firefighters were automatically alerted by the store's alarm system and two appliances were sent out.

Staff extinguished the blaze before they arrived.

The cause of the fire is not yet known and the store is investigating.

Customers abandoned their shopping trolleys as staff ordered them to make their way outside at 2.40pm yesterday.

Store manager Mark Dowell said the fire happened at one of the busiest times of the week.

He said the store was evacuated for about 20 minutes as they dealt with the fire in a toilet.

Mr Dowell said: "There was probably more than 1,000 people there.

"We are still investigating what happened. It was a small fire and there was no damage apart from a little bit of smoke damage in the toilet room."

Mr Dowell said the incident only had a small affect on the business, with most shoppers returning inside to take their items through the till.

"There was only a minimal break in the trading day," he said.

Two appliances from Wellington Fire Station were sent to the scene and an incident commander from Shrewsbury also attended.

Telford police spokesman Constable Steve Wright said officers attended the scene.

"It was a very small fire," he said. "There were no injuries."

Meanwhile in Cound, fire crews spent nearly two hours at a blaze in a barn after 60 railway sleepers caught fire. The sleepers were part of a silage clamp in the barn, which was also used for storing straw.

Two appliances from Shrewsbury and Much Wenlock were called to the barn, at a farm in Harnage, Cound, just before 9.15pm yesterday.

Crews took half an hour to put out the fire, but stayed until after 11pm damping down the straw to ensure it did not restart. The cause is unknown.

By Lizzie Yates and Pam Griffin