A village store faces weeks of closure after a fire broke out in the early hours of this morning (June 14).

Fire crews from Andover, Stockbridge and Sutton Scotney were called to the Clatfords Village Store and Post Office in Goodworth Clatford on Monday following reports of a fire within the shop. A spokesperson for the store confirmed to the Advertiser that everyone was fine, but the shop’s stock had been damaged.

“Everybody’s fine,” they said. “Our landlady, who lives in the flat upstairs, raised the alarm but she’s fine.

“The shop can’t open and there is no saleable stock so although we don’t have huge amounts of damage to the building, we do have huge amounts of damage to the stock.”

The fire began in the early hours, when it is believed the motor on the store’s freezer caught alight and caused a fire in the shop. This set off the building’s fire alarms, with the landlady calling in the fire brigade.

Crews from Andover, Stockbridge and Sutton Scotney were called to the fire, with two sets of breathing apparatus used as well as one hose reel jet and one main jet.

While the fire was put out quickly, the shop now faces a while until it is able to reopen again.

“It will be weeks until we reopen we think,” the spokesperson said, “though we hope to find a temporary home within the village so that we can have a temporary shop. Then we can either have a visiting post office or, depending on what the insurance company say, we can use the post office here but we just don’t know.”

Residents have pledged to help out where they can, and offer support to the shop at the heart of their community.

Freezers can be a significant fire risk due to the large amount of electricity they consume and the amount of insulation they contain, which is often flammable.

Research by the Which? Consumer group in 2018 showed that around eight per cent of fires nationally each year are caused by freezers and fridges.