Carbon dioxide leak closed Tesco store for two hours

Shoppers were evacuated and Newburytoday.co.uk received reports that they were offered little explanation by Tesco staff as to the cause of the leak.
Three fire pumps from Newbury, Hungerford and Reading were called to the site shortly after 5pm, but crew manager for Red Watch at Newbury Fire Station, Bob Mitchell, said little action was required by the fire service other than establishing the type of gas the refrigeration unit was emitting.
“We had to make sure that it wasn’t a harmful chemical," said Mr Mitchell. “There was a cloud of gas coming out under high pressure so they evacuated the store."
He added that gas monitoring equipment and breathing apparatus were used by the fire crews while an engineer was on site to fix the leak, which was said to have been caused by a burst pipe.
A spokeswoman for Tesco, Lizzie Roberts, said: "Our Newbury store was closed briefly on Saturday afternoon as a precaution because of a fault with a refrigeration unit.
"There was no danger to customers or colleagues."
The store re-opened at 6:40pm.
Tesco refused to comment any further on the cause of the leak.


Photograph provided by Stephen Sowerby.