As part of his wife’s 60th Birthday treat John and Karen Howard were away having a long weekend in Rome when they got a call on Friday 5th September that their garden sheds in Wilton Court backing onto the Nature Walk, were on fire! The neighbours were quick to attend, with Peter and Steve trying their best with two garden hoses to kill the flames. These efforts were futile as you can see from the photo. The Fire Brigade and Police arrived in a timely manner and had the fire under control and extinguished in about 45 minutes. The cause of the fire (according to a neighbour, was young kids who had already tried to set fire to his fence, but he saw smoke and quickly dealt with the fire.

John and Karen consider themselves lucky that their fire was started in the mid/late afternoon, and neighbours saw the smoke and took action, which was a nice piece of community spirit. John’s collection of irreplaceable antique and old carpentry tools were ruined. Other tools and equipment collected over many years were destroyed and the insurance will not be able to cover all the financial loss. The cost of the blaze is estimated between £8000 and £10,000, with two sheds, garden furniture, and fences to replace. The biggest message we have to get out there is the danger, where there could have been loss of life and/ or serious injury, from gas bottles stored near the shed. Fortunately they were empty being the end of summer. Imagine if they were full and exploded – causing death or injury to one of the kids? For my part, at the end of the day, these are just things, and things are replaceable, but imagine if one of these children had been injured or worse still, burnt to death, can you imagine having to live here with that in your mind, and then the parents their life long suffering? It doesn’t bear thinking about.

Parents should be explaining this to those culprits who thought they were just starting a little camp fire. Did your child come home smelling smokey that day? Hopefully this was a camp fire that got out of hand, but the real fear and concern is that it could have been a lot worse, people could have died if this fire had been set in the evening, or a house was burnt down! John told Newton News: “Not a great 60th Birthday present! Please get the message  across to parents. I am not looking for recompense or retribution, we just need these kids to understand how bad things could have been, and hopefully teach them a lesson.”