CUSTOMERS and staff were forced to evacuate a bank in Bewdley after a cigarette set fire to a doorframe.
Firefighters arrived at Barclays yesterday morning to find a 3cm strip of the door frame smouldering and the alarms sounding.
The fire at the Load Street branch took only an estimated 30 seconds to extinguish before banking was allowed to resume.
"It was all a bit of overkill, but they have their standard procedures," said Sub Officer Jim Richards, of Kidderminster Fire Brigade's Green Watch.
"It's likely it was a cigarette that caused it. We couldn't find anything else. It has to be one of the fastest jobs we have done, apart from false alarms."
A spokeswoman for Barclays said staff called the fire brigade for advice and evacuated immediately on officers' advice.
She said business was interrupted for around 10 minutes while the incident was tackled.
"The fire brigade made a thorough investigation of the building before they let people back in and nobody was hurt," she added.
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