FIREFIGHTERS have revealed how close Laura Ashley came to starting a fire which could have spread throughout the city centre.
There is a large amount of water damage on the first floor where crews have hosed down hot spots in their efforts to control the blaze.
Crews also had to knock through a wall in the first floor stock room to extinguish the fire before it was able to take hold in the building itself.
Light fittings were also smashed through by fire-fighters controlling the blaze.
Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service area manager Neil Blackburn said: "You can see from the beams that it is partially burnt.
"We knew that we may have had an issue with hidden fire voids, so what we did was smash through a plasterboard wall into a hidden void and you can see we were lucky that we did as we just managed to stop the fire getting through to the building on the wooden beams."