Cause of fatal fire likely to have been electrical

The cause of a house fire which claimed the life of an 81-year-old woman was most likely electrical, a fire service investigation has found.

Firefighters were called to the Grade II listed Perches House in Shrewsbury in the early hours of 27 January and Rose Roberts was declared dead at the scene.

Fire Investigation Officer Ross Donnelly said discovering the cause of the fire had been difficult because of the "extensive damage to the building and limited access".

However, he said he was confident the fire was accidental and electrical in origin, although work continued to find out exactly what had happened.

The victim's daughter, Jessica Richards, said the fire had completely destroyed the roof and the oak staircase.

She said the upper floors had also been saturated by water, putting them at risk of collapse.

She has started an appeal to raise £500,000 to save the building, which is known to many as Scrooge's office from the 1984 movie adaption of A Christmas Carol.

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