Severe fire at Bury Park fabric shop

Beds Fire and Rescue Service received a call about the fire in the House of Jasmine fabric store at 4.27pm on May 13.

When the first firefighters arrived at the scene on Dunstable Road some minutes later, they found a back of the shop engulfed in flames, with smoke pouring out from the front of the building.

The blazing shop was on the ground floor of a three-storey terrace of shops and flats. A Beds Fire and Rescue spokesman said: “There were fears the fire could spread to those properties adjacent to or above it.”

The road outside was closed while firefighters tackled the blaze.

Station Commander Kevin Moores said: “When we arrived there was a lot of smoke coming out of the front of the shop and we had to fight the fire from both the front and the back.”

Despite the heavy smoke and the seriousness of the fires, the blaze was brought under control and extinguished within twenty minutes of firefighters arriving on the scene.

A fire investigation concluded it started accidentally after a large halogen bulb in a downlighter popped, causing a fire to start in the ceiling void in the shop. The fire then developed in the ceiling and spread before becoming serious enough that staff noticed it.

Station commander Moores added: “The fire crews did a superb job of beating down the fire and getting it out within twenty minutes.

“The fire had spread into the ceiling void which made it harder to fight but we confined it to the ground floor and stopped it spreading to the flat upstairs and neighbouring buildings.

“I’d like to congratulate the firefighters on doing a cracking job.”