Shropshire businesses are being warned to check their fire safety after fire officers identified a “worrying trend” among some firms which are putting lives at risk.

Fast food outlets with accommodation above are especially at risk.

Many business owners do not have integrated fire alarm systems fitted because they wrongly believe them to be too expensive, said Watch Manager Martin Huckle, Rural Fire Safety Supervisor for Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service.

Police are investigating an arson attack on a joinery workshop near Shrewsbury which caused up to £400,000 damage.

They issued an appeal today for information following the fire at Niblett Bespoke Joinery based at Edgebold, near Hanwood.

The business shares the old dairy depot site with several other firms alongside the A488, Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service received a call at 01.54am 1^st August 2011.

Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service firefighters were called out at 10.30pm on Wednesday 23rd February to a large quantity of pallets on fire outside a unit on Halesfield 17, Telford. As the fire is believed to have been started deliberately, we are advising the business community to be alert and report any suspicious activity to the police.

SFRS advice to prevent arson is:

Magistrates have ordered a Shropshire hotel manager to pay fines and costs totaling £5,355 in a landmark court case brought after the fire alarm failed to go off in the premises.

Nine residents were staying at the Plume of Feathers at Harley, near Shrewsbury, in the early hours of July 27 last year when the wife of the hotel manager opened the bedroom door to find smoke in the corridor.

On 7 May 2010 Mr Momen Chowdhury, former owner of the business known as The Curry House Mardol Shrewsbury, pleaded guilty at Shrewsbury Magistrates Court to seven offences under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.