Wigan supermarket forced to shut after fire breaks out

A blaze started in the plant room at Asda, on Soho Street in Newtown, and affected the electrics to the store.

Firefighters from Wigan Atherton and Hindley stations attended at 5.30am on Tuesday and worked to isolate the electrics and make sure everything was safe.

There was a lot of smoke damage to the plant room and storage area, but the rest of the supermarket was not affected by the flames.

A fire service spokesman said: “The fire involved an electrical plant room in a supermarket. Fire crews wearing breathing apparatus used three dry powder extinguishers, a positive pressure ventilation fan and a thermal imaging camera to extinguish the fire.

“Firefighters were in attendance for approximately two hours and 35 minutes.”

The store was shut on Tuesday morning as efforts were made to resolve the problems with the electricity supply, reopening at 2pm.

A spokesman for Asda said: “Our Wigan store is currently closed due to an electrical issue following a small fire on the site this morning which has now been extinguished.

"We would like to thank our colleagues for their quick response and apologise to our customers for any inconvenience caused whilst we work to reopen the store.”

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