Praise for 999 crews after fire is halted

The owners of a Shropshire hall threatened by a blaze in a nearby outbuilding have praised firefighters who stopped the fire spreading to the main building.

The boiler room and workshop at historic Aston Hall, near Oswestry, were destroyed in the fire in the early hours of yesterday. At the height of the fire about 40 firefighters battled successfully to stop it spreading to the rest of the property.

Today a member of the family, which runs Shropshire's TG Griffiths company, praised the fire crews who dealt with the fire.

Mr Tudor Griffiths said: "We live in a very rural area and to see so many fire crews from across a wide area arrive, all within 18 minutes, was incredible. The firefighters were so professional and yet so courteous. Many are also retained firefighters and so after working through the night they would have had to have go to their work the next day."

He said that the family would now be assessing the damage to the outbuilding.

A security guard spotted smoke and raised the alarm just before 1am.

When crews from Oswestry arrived the flames were through the roof. It took al-most two hours to bring the fire under control with firefighters from as far as Wem, Shrewsbury and Telford.

Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service said there will be investigations into how the fire began but it was not believed to be suspicious.