A shoe shop blaze in Richmond town centre caused traffic chaos and left shops unable to open on Wednesday morning.

Six fire engines and 35 firefighters were scrambled from Richmond, Kingston, Twickenham, Heston and Chiswick to deal with the fire at Bowleys in George Street.

The blaze was reported at 8.41am and took just over an hour to bring under control.

The three-storey shop was empty at the time and no injuries were reported.

Station manager David Reid, who was at the scene, said: "The crews did a very good job to contain the fire and get it out quickly. 

"Thankfully no one was in the shop at the time of the fire and there were no injuries."

The cause of the fire is still undetermined.

Dave Wilkes, a team leader at Superdrug, which is opposite the blazing shoe shop, said the area had been cordoned off.

He said: "The whole area has been cordoned off, from outside our store all the way down to Clarks. 

"The fire doesn't look like it is out of hand but it is serious enough.

"They forced entry into the building but I don't think anyone was in there."

 

He added firefighters were not allowing his shop to open during the operation.


London mayoral hopeful David Lammy was in Richmond at the time, holding a Labour rally at Richmond Bridge.

He said: "The fire service were here within seconds, frankly, dealing with what could be a major emergency for this row of shops. 

"It’s a stark reminder of the importance of the fire service here in London and the fantastic work that our emergency services do to save lives, to save buildings and to keep the city moving."

Mark Read tweeted: "Large fire at Bowleys in Richmond next to House of Fraser. Avoid the area -  @LondonFire amazing as always".

Peter Black tweeted: "Wowzers. Fire on Richmond High Street. Hope everyone is safe #RichmondFire #richmond".

Other Twitter users paid tribute to the fast response of LFB.

Alexsantos. wrote: "Fair play to Richmond Fire Dept, in the space on a minute it went from 1 fire truck to six."

An aerial platform from Wembley was also on the scene.