St Elizabeth Hospice Shop

Residents were forced to evacuate their flats at 4am today when fire broke out in a Great Yarmouth charity shop.

The alarm was raised at about 3.40am by Emma Trudgill who was playing computer games in her King Street flat with her boyfriend Zachary Coleby, 19, and smelled burning plastic.

Miss Trudgill, 22, a beauty therapist, said: “We checked around the flat to see everything was all right and then Zachary went downstairs.

“He looked outside and saw smoke and when he touched the glass window of the St Elizabeth Hospice charity shop he realised it was hot.

“We dialled 999 and also began alerting other neighbours.”

She said fire officers evacuated the immediate neighbours and they were left on the pavement outside for about two hours.

Her neighbour Sonia Sherwood said: “The fire alarms had begun going off in our building but I thought they were faulty.

“A fire lady then knocked on the door and said we should get out.”

Three fire engines from Yarmouth were called to the blaze and firefighters used breathing apparatus and hose reel jets to tackle it, extinguishing it by 4.30am.

Fire investigators were inside the shop yesterday looking for the cause.

Alison Lanchester, director of income generation at the Ipswich-based hospice, said: “It sounds as if the fire has been very extensive. It is one of our recently opened shops and our manager is quite upset.”

It was likely that all stock would have to be written off due to fire and smoke damage.

She said: “It is a shame as it is all donated stock and the shop trades very well.”