Residents were evacuated from their homes and their street sealed off as firefighters battled a massive blaze which destroyed part of a house in Shropshire.

Flames leapt up to 10ft into the air at the height of yesterday’s fire, which gutted the roof of a semi-detached house in Shrewsbury. A neighbouring property was also damaged.

No one was hurt in the incident but residents within a 150 metre radius of the property in Alberbury Drive, close to the junction with Featherbed Lane in Sundorne, had to be evacuated due to the smoke and heat.

A large cordon was put up around the site of the fire and sections of both roads were closed for nearly two hours at about 3.30pm while police and fire crews dealt with the incident. Residents were let back into their homes at about 5pm.

The house’s owner Brian Williams said he and his wife were out when the fire broke out. He said: “I have lived here since 1981. I had been at my mum’s and when I got home my neighbours said they had seen smoke. I haven’t got a clue what caused it.”

Martin Timmis, for Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service, said: “Between ourselves and the police we evacuated everyone within a 150 metre radius of the fire and that was mainly because of the extent of the smoke and the heat that was coming off at the time.

“One house is severely damaged on the first floor, and the roof and the house to the left has a bit of superficial damage but not much. The cause of the fire will be investigated.”

Bob Budden, Mr Williams’s next-door neighbour, said he had noticed a smell of drains at about 12.30pm but had initially believed it was from his property.

He said: “We contacted an electrician to come out and see but they couldn’t find anything. We called our next-door neighbour and then went round to have a look and we could see smoke coming from the roof.”

Eyewitness Philip Wyatt, of nearby Farmoor, said: “There were flames up to 10ft high. There was nothing in the windows just in the roof space.”

West Mercia Police said Featherbed Lane was reopened at about 5.22pm and the cordon taken down shortly afterwards.

By Russell Roberts