Huge debts of millionaire who died in fire with family

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The hearing into the deaths of 50-year-old Chris Foster, his wife Jill, 49, and daughter Kirstie, 15, was told that Mr Foster's thermal insulation company, Ulva Ltd, went into liquidation in October 2007, 10 months before the family died.

Police believe Mr Foster killed his wife and daughter in their £1.2million home in Maesbrook, Shropshire, before torching the property and committing suicide. Their burnt bodies were found in Osbaston House days after the blaze in August last year.

Shrewsbury magistrates' court heard that in December 2005 Mr Foster told police his former accountant was blackmailing him over a joint property deal in Cyprus. Two defendants were prosecuted and found not guilty at Shrewsbury crown court in November 2006.

The inquest, attended by Mr Foster's mother Enid and brother Andrew, saw photographs of the five-bedroom house before and after the blaze.

Images of the dining room showed containers of heating oil on the floor. The inquest was told that an oil tank used to heat the home was in the outbuildings and would have been full at the time of the fire.

Three CCTV cameras at the 16-acre property provided views of the driveway, the stable and garage, and the front of the house.

Fire crews were called to the blaze at 4.30am on 26 August and called police.Detective Constable Paul Rogers, from Oswestry CID, told the inquest that Peter Day, a lorry driver from a local animal feed firm, alerted his depot to the blaze when he saw an "orange glow" as he passed the road leading to the house and his colleagues made "one of many" 999 calls.

Dr Alexander Kolar, a Home Office pathologist who conducted post mortem examinations on all three bodies, said there were no gunshot wounds to Mr Foster's brain or any other vital organs, but could not rule out that he had been shot.

He said the cause of death was "inhalation of the products of combustion" and there was evidence that Mr Foster was alive for "tens of minutes" before the flames overcame him. The inquest continues.