Firefighters smashed their way into a homeware and furniture shop after a blaze broke out in its store room last night.

Crews wearing breathing apparatus broke the glass doors of the Loft, in Broad Street, Teddington, at about 8pm and battled through smoke to get to the fire.

They put out the flames as police cordoned off the road but the blaze, believed to be cause by an electrical fault, destroyed about 15 per cent of the room which contained new stock for Christmas.

Twickenham fire station said a member of the public raised the alarm and dialled 999.

Dan Wareham, watch manager at Twickenham fire station, said: “There was no-one inside the premises. The crews stopped it from spreading because it did have the potential to spread, in the store room there were lots of boxes and a lot of stock for Christmas.

“We were quite lucky because the shop doesn’t have any residential flats above it and a lot of other premises do, so that took away one consideration.”

He said firefighters stayed at the scene until about 11pm, adding: “There are indications it could have been an electrical fire but it’s far from conclusive.”