Milton Keynes shopping centre bosses explain why entire building was not evacuated until an hour after fire broke out yesterday

The blaze started in one of the independant food cabins in Queens Court yesterday afternoon when the centre was busy with bank holiday shoppers.

Within minutes flames had engulfed the wooden structure and spread to a neighbouring cabin.

Queens Court, once home to the famous fountain and pool, was evacauted within four minutes and the area blocked off, say centre:mk bosses. But they made the decision not to evacuate the remainder of the shopping centre.

Firefighters were on the scene within seven minutes and the fire was quickly extinguised with two main jets and a hose reel jet.

But meanwhile black smoke was rising and threatening to spread into the shopping malls. So, at around 4.30pm – one hour and seven minutes after the fire started - a decision was made to evacuate shoppers from the entire building.

A centre:mk spokesperson said: “Initially a partial evacuation was initiated as a precautionary measure, which was extended to a full evacuation approximately an hour later, again as a precaution, due to smoke potentially entering the malls.”

They added: “The centre was fully evacuated for approximately 30 minutes while the smoke cleared, and the centre doors were reopened at 5pm.”

Centre Director Kevin Duffy "We can confirm that the centre was evacuated yesterday for approximately 30 minutes as a precaution, following a fire in an Independent trader cabin in Queens Court. The fire was contained swiftly and thanks to the fantastic work of both the Fire Brigade and Thames Valley Police the centre was able to reopen at 5pm.

"We open as normal today.”

Bucks Fire and Rescue refer to the fire on its incident list as “Fire in wooden sheds”.

Two appliances and crews from West Ashland, one from Broughton, one from Winslow, along with two officers attended.

A spokesperson said: “One of the outbuildings was 100 percent destroyed by the fire, the other was approximately 50 percent damaged by the fire.”

Police were also on the scene, along with South Central Ambulance Service. Road closures were put in place from North Eighth Street to to Secklow Gate until the blaze was under control.