Fire! Fire! Fire!

Back at the end of June, we had some yobs set fire to some disused buildings behind our house and we feared that they would be back to do it again and last night they did just that. Not once, but three times!

The first time was just after tea, we spotted an orange glow in the kitchen window and at first thought it was the sun setting but when we opened the door we were greeted by flames engulfing a porta-cabin only yards from our cars. I got the cars moved as quickly as possible while Debbie rang the fire brigade who, as it happens were already on their way. The firemen arrived within minutes and managed to put out the fire quite quickly.

Ten minutes later, while we were having a heated discussion with our neighbour outside about parking, Debbie noticed that the main building behind us was now on fire so it was time for another 999 call. This building was a little bit further away from the cars, which we had moved back to their normal position, so we didn't bother moving them again. The firemen were back again and it took quite a bit longer to tackle this blaze as it's quite a large building. We watched on as the 'Simon Snorkel' ladders were raised in to the air and hovered the firemen inches above the roof so they could break through with an axe. The fire engines left and we settled down for some much needed sleep.

At two o'clock in the morning the dogs start barking and I could hear banging coming from outside so I leap out of bed and fling open the bathroom window to see flames roaring from the same building with things exploding inside. We rang for the fire brigade again who were already on their way. We watched for a while with a brew and a ciggy to calm our nerves. After we were sure everything was under control we went back to bed wondering how we were going to get up in the morning.

On the one hand, this plot is surrounded by houses, putting them all in danger when a fire starts, on the other hand, there's obviously more chance any fire will be spotted and reported before it gets out of hand. These yobs must have come back at 2am determined that they would be able to start a fire that would go unnoticed long enough to cause maximum devastation.

This morning we did manage to get up on time but we are very tired and very angry. Whoever it is that has bought this plot of land to build new houses should be getting a move on and demolishing what is essentially a death trap and a major disaster waiting to happen.

You can see pictures from last night here and from back in June here.

Paul