A faulty paper shredder was the cause of a fire at an office building in St John’s.

Fire crews from Peel and Douglas were called to a commercial building in Station Road today (Saturday) at about 10.30am.

The owner of the property had been notified by an alarm monitoring centre that the building’s fire alarms had activated and upon arrival he was able to confirm that the building was heavily smoke logged throughout.

Fire crews wearing breathing apparatus identified a faulty paper shredder in a ground floor stockroom as the source of the smoke.

The paper shredder was removed from the property and the building was ventilated using a positive pressure ventilation fan.

An electrical breakdown of a capacitor was identified within the shredder.