A woman has appeared in court charged with arson with intent to endanger life following a devastating fire at a Matalan fashion store in Grimsby.

The fire broke out at around 4.00pm last Sunday while shoppers and staff were still in the store, situated on the Alexander Retail Park. Everyone managed to escape unharmed but the fire destroyed a large part of the building.

Around 60 firefighters tackled the fire, which was extinguished at around 7.30 that evening.

A spokesperson for Mataln told info4fire: “Matalan confirms there was a fire at its Grimsby store over the weekend. Importantly, no-one was hurt however there was extensive damage caused within the store and to stock. There is currently an investigation being carried out to find out the details of exactly how this happened.”

Click the play button for timelapsed video of the fire:

More footage of the fire and aftermath