Families Evacuated after Store Inferno

MORE than 1,000 people were told to leave their homes as a huge blaze destroyed a major clothing store in Birmingham.

Families living along Old Farm Road and Flaxley Road were evacuated when fire engulfed the Matalan store, at Stechford Retail Park. No-one was hurt in the blaze but the giant pall of smoke could be seen across the West Midlands.

Fire chiefs said they could not save the store because it did not have a sprinkler system. Assistant chief fire officer Robert Hulland said: "Once again the fire service is having to come to a new building which has no sprinklers and watch it burn down. We have lost a commercial premises, an adjoining property has been damaged, jobs have been lost and I have had to put my firefighters and the public at risk."

He rejected concerns that retailers and schools raise over sprinklers accidentally being set off and ruining stock or coursework.

"The chances of a sprinkler system going off accidentally are 16 million to one," he said. "The fire service are frustrated."

A Matalan spokeswoman said it was one of only a few retailers to employ a health and safety manager who audits all 194 stores nationwide.

She added: "Ideally we would have spinklers in all our stores. We take them very seriously."

Yesterday's fire came just days after a blaze destroyed part of Light Hall School, in Solihull, which also did not have sprinklers.

The manageress raised the alarm and cleared the store of shoppers after the fire broke out in a first floor storeroom just after 12.30pm.

The blaze quickly spread and the JJB store next door had to be sealed off. The fire sent a 100ft column of thick, black, foul smelling smoke into the sky. More than 100 firefighters fought to contain the blaze and families were told to leave their homes in freezing temperatures.

Mum-of-four Jackie Dowlings, aged 40, of Old Farm Road, sought refuge at her mother's home in Kitts Green. Mrs Dowlings said: "I heard the most horrendous, frightening crash - that was the Matalan roof falling in."

Tom Rogers, aged 32, who works at UK Assistants situated opposite Matalan, said: "There was smoke coming from Matalan and in about an hour it was really bad."

The cause of the fire is not yet known.