PICTURES: Huge blaze destroys popular Shropshire karting centre

The waiting room and workshops at Rednal Karting just south of Oswestry were destroyed in the blaze.

Firefighters who tried to enter the building to try to save it were beaten back by the ferocity of the fire.

But the fire crews were able to save adjacent buildings where equipment is stored and store the fire from spreading to a field of tinder dry standing corn next to the rural business.

The alarm was raised just after midnight on Friday.

The devasted owner and staff of Rednal Karting say they will rebuilt its headquarters and open again to the public as soon as possible.

An owners' day at the track, undamaged in the blaze, went ahead as planned yesterday, less than 36 hours after the blaze.

Mike Rees, who has run the centre for six years, said it would open to the public again as soon as the business could source new karts and other equipment.

"We will bounce back from this and be stronger than ever - we have to," he said.

Fighting back tears, Mr Rees, from Whitehurst near Chirk, said: "I have a wonderful team here and we will ensure Rednal Karting is back as soon as possible."

Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service group commander, Neil Griffiths, said that when the fire crews arrived they found flames leaping from the building.

"The owner of the business was on scene and told us there could by gas cylinders inside," he said.

"We made attempts to enter the building to retrieve those cyclinders and hopefully then contain the incident, but because of the intensity of the fire we were unable to get inside."

Fire crews from Baschurch, Ellesmere, Oswestry and Shrewsbury spent more than four hours bringing the fire under control from outside.

Group commander Griffiths said the crews were able to protect others areas of the business were equipment was stored.

"There was also concern about a field of tinder dry, standing corn adjacent to the fire and the crews ensured that sparks from the fire did not get into the field, which would have gone up very quickly."

He said one of the problems had been getting water to the business, on the Rednal Industrial Estate - a former, World War Two RAF base. A water bowser and heavy pumping unit were used in the operation.

"With such a rural location one of the main problems was finding enough water. At one point we had to extract water from a pond and also used the nearby canal. That meant laying long lengths of hose from the water source to the fire," he said.

He said the cause of the fire was being investigated but was not thought to be suspicious.

A fire investigation officer was returning to the scene today where fire crews were still damping down and making the area safe.