ONE hundred staff at the town's Safeway store had to be evacuated and customers turned away after a fire broke out in the store's roof.

Six engines from Bromsgrove and Redditch were called to the Buntsford Park Road store after an automatic fire alarm was activated before the store opened for business.

According to Redditch's sub officer Morris, one of the firefighters at the scene, the blaze started while the store was carrying out its annual generator test, at around 7.50am on Wednesday, December 19.

Two engineers noticed a burning smell and a fire in the roof of the second-floor generator room and tried to put it out with hand-held extinguishers before raising the alarm.

Sub officer Morris told the Advertiser/Messenger he believed the heat from the generator's extractor caused the timber to catch fire.

He said: "It could have been much more serious if it had spread to the store but we cut a fire break in the roof and we stopped it spreading."

Staff members turning up for work were forced to wait in the car park before finally being let into the store at around 9.40am.

The shop, due to open at 8am, finally opened for business just after 11am.

A Safeway spokeswoman said there was a small fire in the plant room which burnt a hole in a roof at the back of the building but, there was no major or smoke damage.She said the alarms went off and staff were evacuated.