A RESTAURANT owner was overwhelmed by the ‘thousands of messages of love and support’ after a fire broke out above his business.

Fire crews were called to the Balti Stan Indian restaurant in Clayton-le-Moors on Friday night and found the flat above the restaurant ‘well ablaze’.

Roads around the Whalley Road business had to be closed off for several hours while emergency services tackled the fire.

Harun Miah, who owns the restaurant and the flat above it, said he was thankful the damage was contained upstairs and his business did not suffer any serious damage.

The Indian restaurant opened for customers as usual at 4pm on Saturday.

Mr Miah said: “I was scared when I first saw the fire upstairs, nothing like this has ever happened before.

“We’ve been lucky the damage was all just in the flat, the bathroom is very badly damaged, but the business remains untouched.

“I can’t thank the fire service enough for getting here so quickly and saving the restaurant from being hurt in the fire.

“I’ve had more than 3,700 messages off people worried and asking how everything is.

“I never thought people loved me so much, I really couldn’t believe it.

“My daughter was in tears she was so overwhelmed.

“When I got here at 8am I had more than 20 people asking if I needed any help clearing up and offering me tea and sandwiches.

“It’s really touching.”

Comments and calls of concern came from as far as Spain and Malta.

Mr Miah was in the restaurant downstairs when staff started to see and smell smoke coming from upstairs and called the fire service.

Firefighters said the blaze started in the bathroom and the cause was under investigation.

Nobody was injured in the blaze and the flat above the restaurant was unoccupied.

Both the fire service and police attended to help manage traffic on the road due to the closures.

Three fire crews attended along with the aerial ladder platform and they were at the scene for around four hours.

Whalley Road was closed for several hours from the traffic lights at The Hare and Hounds down to The Albion public house.

A police spokesman said: “We would like to extend our thanks to Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service for their efforts.

“We acknowledge that traffic in this area is busy at rush hour and this incident caused a lot of issues for people.

“We appreciate your understanding and support in what was a challenging traffic management situation where officers made great efforts to prevent traffic passing the fire to protect motorists from harm.”