STALLHOLDERS are soldiering on at Lambert's Market, Nelson, after a fire which wrecked part of the roof and some of the stalls.

Trading went on almost as normal after the blaze, which police and the fire brigade are treating as suspicious.

Market boss Walter Lambert praised traders for their resilience.

"Amazingly they were still selling goods on Friday after the fire at 5am that day," he told the Citizen.

He said assessors were working to put a price on the damage, and that a third of the roof and a quarter of the stalls would have to be replaced.

He stressed: "I don't think the market's long-term future will be affected at all.

"We have every intention that it will carry on as normal.

"Stallholders have been very resilient. They have carried on in very difficult conditions."

It took firefighters from all over East Lancashire an hour and a half to control the blaze, which at one stage had flames leaping 40 feet.

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