Second blaze at store in five days

A Shropshire supermarket has been targeted by arsonists for the second time in five days - prompting bosses to consider installing CCTV cameras.

Fire service bosses said today that if crews had not acted as well as they did the blaze, which involved four piles of pallets in a loading bay at the back of Shrewsbury’s Netto store, could have spread to the main building.

Bosses at the Abbey Foregate store said a fire in a similar location happened on Saturday but burned out. It is thought both were of suspicious origin.

The wooden and plastic pallets were completely destroyed while the loading bay door suffered heat damage in last night’s fire.

The supermarket was open today, but leading firefighter Scott Bishop, based at Shrewsbury Fire Station, said the fire could have been much worse.

He said: “The crew did very well to stop it in the manner that they did. There was a danger it could have spread to the building.”

A spokeswoman for Netto urged anybody who witnessed either of the fires to contact police and said bosses were considering installing CCTV cameras.

She said the fire caused “superficial damage”. She added: “Fortunately nobody was injured and the local fire crew did a superb job tackling the fire and ensuring it didn’t spread to the interior of the store.”