Palmerston Fire and Rescue crews were called to the Palmerston Shopping Centre at about 09:10 today.


It is alleged a heat detector had been activated by contractors removing a faulty compactor from a loading dock at the shopping centre using oxy equipment which had ignited some cardboard under the compactor.



Fire crews attended the scene and extinguished the fire; however smoke had entered the complex.



The shopping centre was evacuated while the smoke was removed using an exhaust system. Crews used a petrol operated fan to clear individual shops and the complex was closed to customers for approximately two hours.

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