A FIRE in a shop caused a busy high street to be closed off and residents to be evacuated.

Fire crews were praised for their quick response in tackling the blaze at the empty unit in Winchester High Street yesterday.

They were called to the unit next to Hasta shop at 12.24pm and arrived within five minutes.

They evacuated residents from the flats above the unit before getting inside the building to tackle the fire.

One Winchester resident who was walking along the High Street and asked not to be named told how fire crews broke down the door of the building to get inside.

She said: “They broke down the door and put their masks on and went in the building.

She described the building as “quite smoky” at the time.

John Gillingham, 30, who lives above the building where it happened said firefighters shouted at him to get out.

Mr Gillingham said: “We were above and we heard the firefighters kicking the doors and I opened the window and saw the fire and grabbed my stuff and told my neighbours to get out.

“There was no flames, it was just literally covered in smoke.”

Sarah Burman, who works at Warren and Son stationers in High Street, said: “We heard the fire engines which came up the street. I initially smelt smoke but thought it was burned toast.

“I looked outside and it was really quite bad, there was a lot of smoke coming out of the building.

“I think it must have been an electrical fire. T there was a burst of flames coming out of the door after the firefighters arrived.

“It could have been worse, but because they arrived so quickly they got it under control.”

Two fire engines from Eastleigh fire station and one from Basingstoke were at the scene.

Tactical adviseor and senior fire officer at Eastleigh Fire Station, Steve Buchanan-Lee, said: “At 12.24pm we were mobilised to Winchester High Street, on arrival at 12.29pm we identified there was smoke coming from the premises and we instigated a response plan which involved three pumps and an officer.”

Fire crews then used thermal equipment to find the cause of the fire which was in the rear of the shop in an electrical cupboard.

The cause of the fire was treated as non-suspicious and crews worked with the electrical board and isolated the supply of electricity. The fire is believed to have been caused by an electrical fault.

Mr Buchanan-Lee praised the response of firefighters, addinghe added: “These things always have the potential to be worse but thanks to the reaction of incident commander John Clarke from Basingstoke and the actions of his crews the fire was quickly dealt with and any further danger of spread was stopped.”