King’s Lynn's Hardwick Sainsbury's reopens following weekend’s fire

A Lynn supermarket which was evacuated after a fire took hold at the weekend is welcoming customers again this afternoon.

Several fire crews were called to the blaze at the Sainsbury's store on the Hardwick estate at around 5.50pm on Saturday – with the shop being shut to customers since then.

Officials for the company have said an investigation is under way into the cause of the fire and the store has reopened this afternoon.

A Sainsbury’s spokesperson said: “Our King’s Lynn Hardwick store was closed on Saturday evening due to a fire.

“Thankfully no customers or colleagues were injured and the store reopened this afternoon.

“We are sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.”

Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service said crews from Lynn – including their aerial ladder platform, Downham, Sandringham, Wisbech, Long Sutton, Terrington, Hunstanton and Massingham attended the blaze on Scania Way.

David Copeland, group manager of the western district for Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service, said: "We are unsure at this point of how the fire started but it did get behind the cladding which covers the Sainsbury's building, so we had to remove a lot of that material to make sure there was no concealed fire spread."

Crews wore breathing apparatus and used main jets and hose reel jets to extinguish the fire, while a thermal imaging camera was used to check for hotspots.

A stop was called to the incident at 9.14pm.