Shoppers had to be evacuated from Festival Place after a fire alarm in Marks and Spencer triggered an emergency response on Tuesday August 17.
Fire alarms in the shopping centre ordered the evacuation of hundreds of afternoon shoppers and staff.
Four fire engines from Hampshire Fire and Rescue were called to Church Road at 5.39pm.
Three engines from Basingstoke, including a specialist equipment and ladder engine were called and the fourth was dispatched from Odium.
Up to 20 firefighters were greeted at the scene by hundreds of shoppers lining the pavements as staff shepherded everyone out the shopping centre.
Firefighters helped removed a faulty fridge which had a burnt out motor that set off the alarm.
Debbie Beaton, a spokesperson for Hampshire Fire and Rescue said: “With incidences like this there is a predetermined attendance action due to the possible scale of the incident.
“This means that even if the incident is very minor, at somewhere like Festival Place, we have to send a certain number of engines.
“The stop message for firefighters came at 5.53, the crews would have been back before six, so it was very small.”
Steven Connolly, Centre Director at Festival Place said: “After investigation there was no fire found, the alarm was set off by a burnt out motor in one of the fridges at Marks and Spencer. The issue has now been resolved.”
In reaction to the incident a spokesperson for Marks and Spencer said: “We take the safety of our customers and employees extremely seriously and evacuated our Basingstoke store on Tuesday afternoon as a precaution following the sounding of the store's fire alarm.
"The alarm was set off by a small amount of smoke caused by a malfunctioning refrigerator unit. The unit was removed and the store reopened after 40 minutes and traded as normal for the rest of the day.
"We apologise to our customers for any inconvenience this may have caused."
