POSTAL deliveries in Watford were subject to delays at the weekend, following a large fire at the Royal Mail sorting office.

Staff working in the building in Ascot Road, Watford, on Friday, November 4, were evacuated as soon as the fire was spotted and no-one was hurt.

Eight crews attended at 9.45pm from Watford, Garston, Rickmansworth, Radlett, Borehamwood, Kings Langley, Bushey and Hatfield.

An aerial platform was also used to tackle the roof blaze.

The fire was extinguished by 11pm, but firefighters remained in attendance to carry out salvage work and to damp down the site.

Staff were allowed back to work at 2am.

Damage caused by the fire was structural and no mail was damaged.

However, the repercussions meant there was a delay to mail being dispatched.

As a result, there was a limited delivery in the Watford area on Saturday morning.

A representative from Royal Mail said: "We apologise to the limited delivery on Saturday morning. However, thanks to the brilliant efforts of staff to get things back on line, the service was back to normal by Monday morning."

The cause of the fire is still being investigated, but it is believed to have been accidental.

The sorting office operates 24 hours a day and its 550 members of staff handle 350,000 pieces of first class mail each day.

In October, they topped a national league table for quality of service and have been nominated for Mail Centre of the Year at the UK Mail Awards.