A fire ripped through a multi-million pound Shropshire development today destroying the first new homes to be built there.

More than 25 firefighters from across the county were called to battle the huge fire at Telford Millennium Community in Ketley, which started shortly after 2am.

Paramedics were also called to the Holyhead Road development, The Village, amid fears that a security guard was missing and could have been trapped in the blaze. It was later discovered there was no security on site at the time.

Fire chiefs today said the blaze was so intense, firefighters were unable to go inside the properties as scaffolding collapsed as the blaze ripped through the timber framed three-storey homes.

Three of the properties were destroyed but firefighters were able to stop the fire spreading to the remaining new builds.

A joint police and fire investigation is now under way to discover how the fire started.

Kevin Faulkner, incident commander from Shrewsbury, said: “The crews did exceptionally well. They managed to put a break in and stop the fire spreading to the other properties.

“We have been waiting for day light to start the investigation. We have got a specialist fire investigator and police coming to find out a possible cause.”

Mr Faulkner said one of their concerns was that the scaffolding had become unsafe.

“We didn’t put any firefighters inside because the risk was far too high.”

Still at the scene more than six hours after the fire, Mr Faulkne added: “Although we were able to tackle the fire in just over an hour, we will be here for some time damping down. One of our major concerns was that the scaffolding had become unsafe and some collapsed.”Mr Faulkner said they feared that gas and electricity could have been already installed in the homes but engineers had visited the site and confirmed no services were yet on the site.

Murray MacGregor, ambulance service spokesman, said all ambulance resources were stood down after two hours as it was confirmed nobody was missing.

Work started on the 700-home development, sprawling between Ketley, Hadley and Wombridge, in July last year.

The first properties were due to be finished by Christmas. Nobody from developer Bryant Homes was available for comment.

Photo by Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service.