Fire sweeps through Shropshire hall

A fire swept through part of a Shropshire historic hall, destroying an outbuilding today. The blaze spread quickly through the boiler room of Aston Hall, near Oswestry.

At the height of the incident about 40 firefighters fought to stop it spreading to other outbuildings and the hall itself.

Crews from across the county tackled the fire, using water from the hall's lake to douse the flames and an aerial ladder platform to fight the fire from above.

The alarm was raised just before 1am and it took almost two hours to bring the fire under control.

Incident commander Paul Fulgoni said the Griffiths family, who live at Aston Hall, had not been at home at the time.

"When Oswestry's two crews arrived the flames were through the roof," he said. "They worked quickly and with other crews arriving contained the fire to the building."

Mr Fulgoni said the fire was not believed to be suspicious although he said investigation officers would be at the hall today.