Morrisons blaze: Firefighters battle for six hours to save Walsall supermarket 'from disaster'
Firefighters battled for six hours to put out a gas fire at a Black Country supermarket.
West Midlands Fire Service said a gas pipe caught fire on the outer wall of Morrisons in Walsall town centre at 2.30am today.
Whittimere Street and Lower Rushall Street were closed off for public safety while the store was also shut to customers.
The cause of the fire is not yet known.
Nine firefighters from Walsall and Bloxwich crews fought to contain the blaze.
Crews working with National Grid managed to quell the flames before the fire was extinguished at around 8.20am.
Crew commander Neil Turner, from Walsall fire station, praised the speed of crews when the alarm was first raised as the situation was 'minutes from disaster'.
He said the fire had spread closeby to two electrical substations situated within part of the store which had also set alight.
"The flames were quite severe," he said. "With a gas fire you can't break the source so you have to control it. The fire crews did well.
"It was dangerous for crews when they first arrived.
"They did well to contain the fire, which was three or four minutes from disaster.
"If the electrical substations caught fire inside the building, the flames would have been massive.
"The substations are located in a small outer section of the store, which sustained fire damage to the roof.
"It was very lucky the roof was pitched as the flames were able to go up and over the substations."
Engineers at National Grid were working to replace a gas pipe this morning that had caught fire.
The store reopened to customers by mid-morning.
Reporter Jamie Brassington has been at the scene.
A West Midlands Fire Service spokesman said: "At 8.23am National Grid isolated a gas service main and the fire was put out.
"An electrical plant room was also affected. Fire crews made holes in the roof to allow heat out.
