A fire and explosion rocked health store Food For Thought in Kingston's Market Place yesterday evening (July 23), after a short-circuiting electrical junction box blew a hole in the side of the building at 4.30pm.
Stunned staff were beginning to wind down for the day when a series of sparks flashed from the electrical hub outside the store, before a larger explosion breached the wall and filled the basement with thick smoke.
Several appliances rushed to the scene, evacuating the health food shop and cordoning off the immediate area as shoppers alerted by the blast thronged to see what was going on.
Teams of firefighters used thermal imaging cameras in an attempt to locate the source of the smoke, but quickly realised the problem lay in the electrics outside the shop.
Crew manager John Harris, from Kingston's Red Watch, said: "It was a pretty loud bang.
"We think it was water getting into the electrical system, causing it to short circuit.
"We were there for about an hour and a half in total, making sure there's no chance of any further ignition, clearing the smoke and waiting for the electrical company to come and make it safe."
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