AN investigation is under way into a fire which gutted a Wisbech shop and damaged properties on either side. Flames tore through Fulcher s Butchers, in Norfolk Street, just after 5.30pm on Wednesday. Fire crews were dealing with a minor and unrelated fire

AN investigation is under way into a fire which gutted a Wisbech shop and damaged properties on either side.

Flames tore through Fulcher's Butchers, in Norfolk Street, just after 5.30pm on Wednesday.

Fire crews were dealing with a minor and unrelated fire at the rear of the Discount Cycles shop 100 yards or so up the road, when the butcher's shop caught fire.

A spokesman for the fire service said: "Crews were getting people running up to them saying there was another fire but we had not had any calls about it until they got back to base."

It was after crews brought the fire under control at about 6pm, that they had the call to return to Norfolk Street to put out a second fire.

Assistant Divisional Officer Sean Brown said: "We had two appliances there almost immediately."

The Five Bells pub next door to Fulcher's and nearby flats, at the corner of Norfolk Street, were evacuated.

The fire, which caused extensive damage to the first and second floor of the premises and to the first and second floor of June's Pet shop next door, took more than an hour to bring under control. It is believed to have started in the first floor of the butcher's.

Fire crews from Wisbech, March and the neighbouring Norfolk brigade used a hose reel jet to attack the fire from the front of the building, while fire fighters wearing breathing apparatus broke their way into the rear of the building to tackle the blaze from behind. A turntable ladder from Peterborough was also called in.

While flames shot from the first and second floor windows of the butcher's, crews managed to prevent the fire from spreading to the Five Bells.

Norfolk Street was cordoned off for much of yesterday as fire investigators examined the scene of the blaze to try and identify a cause.

Initial thoughts for both fires were that they were accidental, but ADO Brown said: "We can't rule anything out at the moment."

There were fears the roof of Fulcher's could have been weakened by the fire, which had burned through it in places.