A FIRE ripped through a Bala sweet shop at the weekend causing severe smoke damage.
Flats above the Cocoa confectionary store on the town’s High Street were evacuated on Saturday morning during the blaze which destroyed most of the shop’s stock.
Firefighters smashed through the shop’s window to gain entry to the three storey terraced building in order to tackle the fire.
Steve Valentine, owner of Cocoa, said the shop, which opened three years ago, will be closed until the damage is repaired.
“It will open again,” he said. “When that’s likely to be depends on how fast the insurers work. We’ve lost pretty much all the stock.
“All the electrical meters burned out.”
A spokeswoman for the North Wales Fire and Rescue Service said the blaze was caused by an electrical fault in a consumer board.
“Upon arrival the shop was well alight,” she said.
“The fire was confined to the shop area. There was 100 per cent smoke damage and severe fire damage to two metres square.”
Mr Valentine, who also owns Bala based Gwynedd Confectioners, said there was nobody in the shop on Saturday morning when the fire started.
“On Friday night everything was well,” he said.
“We’d been away at a trade show for the factory and I’d only just arrived back and woke up to news of this. It comes as a bit of a blow but these things happen.”
Two crews from Bala and Corwen were called to tackle the fire at 8.43am and an ambulance also attended the incident.
A spokesman for the Welsh Ambulance Service confirmed they were called to the scene but nobody needed to be taken to hospital.