It has emerged that arsonists were behind a furniture store fire thought at the time to have been caused by a suspected electrical fault.

The Against the Grain warehouse on Hoole Road, Hoole, was closed by a blaze which started just after 5pm on Sunday, June 19, 2016, but has since reopened and is trading as normal.

At the time the blaze – which also affected other businesses within the building – was ‘thought to have been an electrical fire’, according to Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service.

But further investigations revealed a more sinister background.

The Against the Grain furniture store in Hoole Road was closed for some time after the incident but is now open and trading.

Cheshire Police spokesman Daniel Hind said this week: “Following a joint investigation between Cheshire Police and Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service the incident at Against the Grain is being treated as arson.

"No arrests have taken place and anyone with any information in relation to the incident is asked to contact Cheshire Police on 101 quoting incident number 691 of 19/6/2016.”

Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service spokeswoman Sarah Dornford-May concurred: “The fire investigation did show that arson was the cause.”

A report on the blaze found it was started after a heat source and combustibles were ‘brought together deliberately’. The heat source was said to be a naked flame and the fire broke out in a store room with the alarm raised by smoke detectors.

A fire investigation dog, loaned from Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service, searched the scene as part of the investigation.

The Against the Grain furniture store in Hoole Road was closed for some time after the incident but is now open and trading.

Also affected by the blaze was the We Love Yoga Chester studio but the business was back up and running within days. A unit occupied by an events management business was also damaged by smoke.

Sadly, this is not the first time commercial premises in this part of Hoole have been hit by fire. More than 20 years ago Pickfords’ furniture warehouse in Lightfoot Street was razed to the ground following a blaze on October 25, 1996.

And on December 2, 2010, flames ripped through Chester Enterprise Centre, off Hoole Bridge in Hoole, which reduced it to a blackened shell and destroyed 50 businesses.