Two businesses were counting the cost today after a fire badly damaged a glass pavilion at a shopping centre.

Fire crews from Maldon and Tiptree were called to the blaze at the Bentalls Shopping Complex in Heybridge at about 2.15 on Thursday afternoon.

The fire, believed to have been started by an electrical fault, broke out in an office above a clothes shop in the building.

Valerie Kruse heard an explosion in her ladies fashion shop, Simply Clothes, immediately below the office.

Mrs Kruse said: "I went into my stockroom out the back. I was up a ladder and my head was about a foot from the ceiling when I heard an almighty crash and an explosion. The heat from the ceiling was incredible.

"When I came down the ladder and into the shop a woman said there's a fire and the windows have exploded. I ran out to look and there were flames coming out. I came back to ask all the customers to leave - then I rang the fire brigade.

"What amazed me was there were two women in the shop who carried on shopping."

Mrs Kruse - who has lost some stock due to smoke damage - telephoned the owner of the building, Nick Mann, in London.

She said: "He was very concerned that anybody might have been injured with flying glass."

Mr Mann, who rushed back from London to assess the damage, said the office is rented to a pub group called Pioneer Taverns.

He said: "Fortunately no-one was in there at the time. There appears to be no structural damage but all the windows will have to come out. Computers in the office were damaged and there is considerable smoke damage."

Fire officers were quickly on the scene to fight the blaze. Trevor Armstrong, assistant divisional officer of Essex Fire and Rescue Service, said: "We were called to an explosion but it was the glass popping."

He said 20 per cent of the office was severely damaged and the rest of the room was damaged by the heat and smoke.

Mr Armstrong said: "The prompt action of the Maldon crew saved the rest of the building."

Firemen clearing up after the blaze

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