Fire crews arrive 'in nick of time'
Fire crews got to a house blaze "in the nick of time" to stop it spreading to nearby homes.
Firefighters think the fire, at a terraced house in Warwick Road, Wolston, Rugby, yesterday afternoon, was sparked accidentally by a painter using a gas canister as he stripped paint from sills.
Rugby firefighter Jonathan Freeman said roof beams had then caught fire.
He said: "We could see smoke from about half a mile away - it looked quite serious.
"I climbed up and started making holes in the roof with an axe to fight the seat of the fire."
A crew from Brinklow also attended the fire and another firefighter climbed on the roof to help fight the fire.
Mr Freeman said: "It was quite warm up there and the generated heat was causing the beams to burn. We were there for about two-and-a-half hours and, by the time we had finished, about a third of the roof at the rear was gone.
"We got there in the nick of time - five or 10 minutes more and it would have been much more serious and would probably have spread. There was a bit of water damage to the rest of the house but nothing serious."
The owner of the house was shocked but nobody was injured in the incident.
Mr Freeman added: "We made the area as secure as we could and a contractor was going to come out and put sheets over the roof to protect it."
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