THE largest supermarket in Newquay was evacuated after a fire broke out on Wednesday.

Dozens of shoppers and staff were ordered to leave the building after a blaze reportedly ignited in the plant room of Morrisons at 2.50pm.

Two appliances from Newquay Fire Station and another from Tolvaddon Fire Station attended the blaze.

Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus extinguished the “small fire” using carbon dioxide fire extinguishers. They said the electrical fire started after an inverter for the store’s solar panels shorted out.

The closure of Morrisons triggered traffic congestion around the store, which was already busy due to the two-way traffic light system put in place on the A392 as part of the Walker and Treveth developments at Trevithick Manor Farm.

Morrisons was able to re-open for business at 5pm.

Green Watch manager Dominic Walford from Newquay Fire Station said: “Morrisons fully evacuated the building. They did everything correctly.

“Firefighters wore breathing apparatus as we were not sure what atmosphere they were going into.

“We established the inverter had shorted out and triggered the fire alarm. We isolated the inverter, made the system safe and disconnected the solar panels. It was not a massive fire.

“The solar panels are on the roof of the building, but the inverter is in a plant room. It is quite a large invertor as it’s a commercial one.

“Inverters convert DC current to AC and the electricity either goes into the building or into the National Grid.”