Arson fear at town garage

A fire ripped through a car repair business in Shropshire destroying more than 40 cars and causing £25,000 damage in a suspected arson attack.

A security guard at Doseley Motor Spares in Telford raised the alarm after smelling smoke and finding "sky high" flames coming from the scrapyard at about 10.40pm yesterday. About 30 firefighters were drafted in from Telford and Shrewsbury and took four hours to tackle the blaze.

Today the owner of the garage in Doseley Industrial Estate, Yaser Khalayla, said his business will be hit after nearly a quarter of his stock was destroyed.

"I was going to cry when I saw all the flames," he said. "It has shocked me and it will effect the business now because we can't go into the compound, but luckily most of our parts are inside."

Mr Khalayla, who set up the business two years ago, added: "The cars are now just shells. I hope the police find out why this was done. We have never had any problems here because we have the security man on duty and the gates locked.

"It was just as well the cars were drained because it could have caused an explosion."

The guard on duty, who did not want to be named, said: "The flames were sky high and the tyres were just blowing up.

"The neighbours were phoning up when the tyres were burning and they thought it was gun shots going off."

Station manager Paul Fulgoni, of Shrewsbury Fire Station, said: "We are treating the fire as being of doubtful origin."

Mr Fulgoni added fire investigators were back on the scene today trying to determine the cause of the blaze. Telford police spokesman Chris Ammonds said a man in his 20s was arrested on suspicion of arson.