Fire crews praised for quick action as electrical blaze causes evacuation at Sunderland supermarket

Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service were called to a shopping centre on Portsmouth Road in Pennywell, Sunderland at 10.26am on Thursday, September 22 after a worker saw smoke bellowing from the roof of the building.

The first crew were at the scene within five minutes, followed by two other appliances from Farringdon and Gosforth Community Fire Stations, including an Aerial Ladder Platform.

Fire service teams worked alongside colleagues at the electricity board to isolate the power supply to investigate the fire.

Crews extinguished the fire, where flames were located in the eaves of the building and left the scene at 12:18pm after tackling the fire for one hour and 47 minutes.

The firefighters have now been praised for their speedy response to the incident.

Andrew Nelson, Station Manager at Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service, said: “We applaud the quick thinking of the shopping centre staff who alerted the Fire Service to the potential fire.

"The speedy response by our Crews and Fire Control ensured that the electrical fire was contained and didn’t spread to any other areas of the complex.

"By using our Aerial Ladder Platform (ALP) we were able to investigate and identify the exact location of the fire, and to alleviate the issue. After the fire was extinguished we were able to pass the incident over to the electricity board and people were then able to continue going about their day.”