Fire wrecks shoe shop (From Oxford Mail)

Fire wrecks shoe shop

5:40pm Sunday 18th January 2009 in News By Hayley Cover

Fifty firefighters tackled a shoe shop blaze in the centre of Banbury today.

Nine fire crews were called to tackle the fire at the Shoe Zone store, in High Street, shortly before 1pm.

The blaze started in the ground floor of the three-storey building, which was evacuated by staff members.

No-one was hurt in the blaze, although several people were treated for smoke inhalation by paramedics.

Firefighters from Banbury, Deddington, Chipping Norton, Hook Norton, Oxford, Woodstock, Eynsham and two crews from Warwickshire helped to bring the blaze under control.

Firefighter Edward Murphy said: “It's not known how the fire started or the precise location within the shop. We have no reason to believe the fire was suspicious, but we're investigating.

“The ground floor of the shop is gutted and suffered serious fire damage.” news@oxfordmail.co.uk