Town's Victorian church fire ruled accidental

A fire investigation found the fire originated in the kitchen

A fire which engulfed a church at the heart of a community has been ruled as accidental, an investigation has concluded.

Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service says crews from across Norfolk and Suffolk were called to St John the Baptist Church on Broad Street in Harleston, on Wednesday.

While crews managed to save a lot of structure with the roof also remaining intact, there was significant internal damage to the building.

Following a fire investigation, the service said the blaze originated in the kitchen and was started accidentally.

The church, which dates from the 1870s, is one of the seven churches that make up the collective Benefice of Redenhall with Scole across the Waveney Valley.

On social media, the fire service said: "Our thoughts are with the church community as they look to start to recover from the fire with the support of the town. Our thanks to everyone in the local area for their patience on Wednesday and Thursday while we dealt with the incident and carried out our investigation work.

"Thank you to all the crews who worked tirelessly to save the church building and those behind the scenes."

Since the fire, the church has arranged to gather at St Thomas More's Chapel for its harvest worship and Waveney food bank which runs out of the building has temporarily relocated to London Road church.

The church group thanked the fire service for its support on social media.

It said: "Thank you to everyone involved from the fire services over the last few days. You have all been amazing.

"Everyone from the church says thank you although these words will never be enough for what you all done and went through... We are so grateful for everything you all did."