Roys of Wroxham will re-open the top floor of its department store at 9am on Friday following a fire earlier this month.

The blaze early on Sunday September 9 was swiftly put out by sprinklers leaving just smoke and water damage.

Store director Paul Roy said: 'Using specialist equipment the clean-up operation has more or less removed the taint of the fire from the store and its stocks by passing every one of the affected 30,000 items through an ozone chamber and fastidiously cleaning down every surface of the building.

'The escalators and lift have been removed, cleaned and replaced, and some of the tills are still being rebuilt. The ground floor was not affected and has been trading as normal.'

Roys aims to sell the clothing, linens and footwear stock that was affected in the store in a special sale.

He said: 'The staff have got stuck into turning around a pretty upsetting situation and we hope to make the best of it for our customers. Our insurer has been really supportive of the moves we have made to mitigate the situation - picking up the pieces as quickly as possible and helping with their specialist knowledge.'

By tomorrow he was confident they would be looking good and ready to welcome shoppers back upstairs to brands such as Superdry, Joules, Laura Ashley, Timberland, Animal, Bench, Firetrap, Weird Fish, O'Neill, Jack Wolfskin, Jackpot, Toggi, Esprit, Gabicci, Viyella, Wrangler and many famous footwear brands.

Mr Roy said: 'The shame is that we were doing so well - up 20pc on ladieswear for the year and well up on footwear and menswear too.

'Unfortunately we also lost a couple of till points in the fire so there may be queues, but we have rostered extra staff and there are further till points downstairs to make the best service we are able to. You've got to look on the bright side. It could have been worse - the main thing is that no one was hurt.'

A fire service spokesman said an electrical fault was the likely cause of the blaze.

Firefighters came from far afield and the store remained shut throughout a busy Sunday when weekend crowds were swelled by people coming to watch the Tour of Britain cycle race passing through.

Back in May 1995 the same building was gutted by a fire which took 10 hours to tackle by shifts of fire crews.