A village pub has been destroyed after an arson attack in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Emergency services were called out to the Dymock Arms on the A539 in Penley at 2.38am yesterday, Wednesday, to find flames shooting up to 10ft in the air.
Fire crews from Ellesmere, Whitchurch and two crews from Wrexham spent nine hours battling the blaze, which is believed to have been started intentionally.
The crews used an aeriel ladder platform, two main jets, two hose reels and six firefighters wearing breathing apparatus to fight the fire.
Although the pub had been trading in the days before the fire, nobody was inside the premises at the time and no-one was injured.
However, the building suffered 60 per cent fire damage and 100 per cent water and smoke damage.
Richard Fairhead, senior fire safety manager, said: “These are worrying incident as there was a serious possibility that the fire could have developed unnoticed putting lives of the public and the firefighters at risk.
“As it was, these reckless acts tied up life-saving resources, putting the lives of other people at risk.
“Perpetrators of incidents like this are in danger of destroying their own communities.
“Arson is a serious crime and in conjunction with North Wales Police we will pursue prosecutions.”
A spokeswoman for North Wales Police said: “We are investigating the incident. The fire service did call us to attend and we are investigating the cause of the fire.”
Anyone with information about the arson attack is asked to call 0845 607 1002.
By Pam Griffin