A devastating fire at a Fulham pet shop killed scores of animals and caused thousands of pounds worth of damage in the early hours of this morning.

The blaze struck at the Fish Bowl in Dawes Road at about 1.30am. Most of the shop's fish, lizards, guinea pigs, birds, snakes and rabbits perished, while Jasper, the popular shop cat, and three parrots, also died, probably from smoke inhalation.

Eighteen flats were evacuated as a precaution, no people were hurt.

Nearly 60 firefighters battled the fire for more than three hours and were still there this morning conducting the clean-up operation with council workers.

Owners Jenny and Peter Johnson, who opened the shop nearly half a century ago in a building which dates back to 1846, said there was extensive smoke damage throughout the building, but vowed to carry on trading.

Mrs Johnson, who employs two full-time and six part-time staff, said: "We will carry on being the Fish Bowl. We've got to get ourselves together. We've got a lot of loyal customers, friends and staff and we've got to keep going."

Customers were in shock at the incident. Kim Simpson, 20, said: "My nan used to come here, we used to take our dogs here all the time - it's a great community shop, I can't believe it. You can come in and they feed your pets. The parrots have been here years and everyone used to go in and see them."

Other people took to Twitter to express their sadness. @emsylen said, 'Oh no, not the Fish Bowl, used to love that place when I was a kid', while @Teddy Nello wrote, 'The place has been there donkeys' years, I remember buying goldfish there 30 years ago'.

"Just awful," added @Albayr.

Neighbour Amanda Beddows was woken by the arrival of the fire crews, who she praised for their quick rescue operation.

"There was a lot of black smoke billowing from building. The crews were amazing, like a machine. They were in there for a long time and made sure everyone got out of the flats. They looked after everyone. People weren't panicking, just concerned about what was going on. Jasper, he was a lovely neighbourhood cat, we called him Six Dinner Sid because he ate so much."

Friend Howard Adams said the shop was at the heart of the community.: "It's amazing, it's a hub. There's always cars pulling up outside. It's a great shop and run by a great family.

The fire service said a number of animals were saved. Station manager Matthew Burrows said: "Firefighters did very well in this challenging fire and managed to save the lives of lots of animals. The shop has been badly damaged in the blaze, and it's very lucky that no one was hurt."

A spokeswoman for the service added the shop did not have any smoke alarms and that the cause of the blaze is under investigation. It is not thought to be suspicious.