Blaze destroys buildings at Leekes furniture store

A blaze has destroyed two buildings belonging to a furniture store.

Four crews were sent to the fire at the Leekes Llantrisant store, near Talbot Green, Rhondda Cynon Taf, at about 02:31 BST Friday morning.

The company confirmed an outbuilding was affected with a small number of orders destroyed, but said the store will be ready to reopen later on Friday.

South Wales Fire and Rescue Service has launched a joint investigation, with South Wales Police, into the cause of the fire.

Speaking to BBC Radio Wales Breakfast, group store operations director Peter Martin said that two buildings were "completely destroyed".

"We lost two ancillary warehouse buildings to the rear of the store, they're completely destroyed," he added.

"The store has been unaffected. We expect to be back open and trading this afternoon."

Mr Martin said firefighters did an "incredible job making sure they got into our building to make sure the fire didn't spread", adding: "We're very, very grateful for what they achieved."

He said damage to stock had been very minimal, but staff would be contacting a small number of customers whose orders had been destroyed.

Around 60 firefighters, an aerial ladder platform, three water bowsers and an incident command unit were used to tackle the fire, the fire service confirmed.

Crews and appliances from Pontyclun, Pontypridd, Pencoed, Cowbridge, Whitchurch, Cardiff Central, Barry, Kenfig Hill, Caerphilly, Tonypandy, Ely, Bridgend and Aberdare were sent.

South Wales Police, National Grid, Wales & West Utilities and the Salvation Army supported fire crews.

At about 05:00, the fire was brought under control.

The fire service confirmed there was an area of about 150x120 metres damaged by the fire.

South Wales Police confirmed that they were assisting with the incident.

Leekes opened the first of its department stores near Llantrisant in the 1970s. It was quickly followed by another in Cross Hands, followed by Carmarthenshire in 1984 and then Melksham, Wiltshire in 1992.

In 1993, it moved into the hospitality industry when it bought a small site in Hensol, Vale of Glamorgan.

The site now hosts a four star hotel with spa and golf course.