Park South fire: 999 crews defend firefighting actions

Some residents of houses neighbouring the gutted house in Keswick Road, Park South, said the first crews at the scene after 6.30pm on Thursday night disregarded advice the fire was burning at the back of the house off Dalwood Close.

“The fire engines should have come around the back first,” said Sarah Best, 25. “There’s no way they should have gone around the front.”

But Glyn Moody, group manager, for Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service, defended his crews: “The worst thing you can do is waste time driving around the back. The first appliance went to exactly the right place.”

A crew from Stratton was first on the scene, arriving eight minutes after getting the 999 call. They set up a covering jet. 

Peter Bishop, 83, said onlookers had advised the first responders to go round the back of the house. But the Stratton fire crew remained around the front of the house. 

“I’m not downgrading our fire service. They do a bloody great job, but they stood there with their little hosepipe. I said, come round the back,” said Peter, who has lived on Carshalton Road for over 50 years. “My hosepipe I water the garden with had more pressure.”

He added: “I think they thought they could have got it all under control because they didn’t see what we saw from the back of the house. Then, the front of the house was in perfect condition.”

Peter watched as the shed fire spread to the house. He said he heard several loud gunshot-like noises, which he believed were exploding cooking gas canisters.

Picture: Peter Westlake-Webb

Firefighters Glyn Moody and Swindon fire station manager Gareth Evans said their crews did the right thing. After initially thinking they were being sent to a shed fire, typically dealt with by just one crew, the Stratton firefighters radioed for back-up.

More than 30 firefighters battled the blaze, which by the time Mr Evans arrived in his command car at 6.55pm had spread to the house. 

A total of 17 firefighters donned breathing apparatus, taking shifts of around 20 minutes to tackle the fire. They trained two main jets on the flames, with a further five smaller hoses damping the surrounding houses. Other firefighters checked neighbouring homes for potential fire damage.

Mr Evans said temperatures in the house could have reached 800 degrees centigrade at its height. Conditions were so hot there was what is known as a “flash over”, where items in a room almost simultaneously and spontaneously combust. Relatively strong winds had not helped firefighters, instead fuelling the house blaze. 

On Thursday night shocked residents watched the flames. Sam Ellis, 49, could see the devastation from her sister’s Shaftesbury Avenue garden: “It’s horrendous round there. We’ve lost gardens, but they’ve lost their homes.”

Yesterday morning the full scale of the destruction could be seen. Nikki Belcher, 41, said: “It’s upsetting to see the house. They’ve lost all their stuff. I watched the fire, it’s just awful.”

A Mr Wood, who said he had grown up in the house, told the Swindon Advertiser: “It’s terrible.”

The boy who ran home to call 999

A SEVEN-year-old boy told of the moment huge flames leapt above a Park South home.

Youngster Harvey Alexander was out playing with friends when he saw the fire engulf a shed and close in on the line of terraced houses. 

Rather than watch the spectacle he ran home in order to call the emergency services. Harvey said: “I saw a big flame come up. It went wooshing up. I got scared.”

Mum Joanne Mason, 47, said: “He was playing in the next street with his friends. He came running along saying, ‘Call 999.’ I’m so proud of him. I’m glad that he came running home to tell me, rather than going and having a look.” 

Shocking video

WHEN Peter Bishop trained his camera phone on the flames, fire had already destroyed sheds behind Keswick Road.

In shocking video footage taken by the 83-year-old, flames at least two metres high can be seen crackling above the twisted remains of the work sheds.

A conifer tree in the back garden of the home that would eventually be gutted in the fire was stripped of its branches.

Peter, who has lived in Park South for more than 50 years after his London flat was destroyed by fire, told the Swindon Advertiser: “We were just about to have our dinner when a neighbour came round knocking on my door and asking me if I could move my car because his house was on fire.” He moved the car so the fire brigade could access the back garden.

Drone footage taken by photographer Peter Westlake-Webb shows the fire spreading to the house.

Tea for 999 heroes

ONE Hazelmere Close woman, 77, who asked not to be named, carried out mugs of steaming tea for firefighters tackling the burning homes.

She made three rounds of tea for the 30 firefighters resting after spraying the Keswick Road home with water jets.

“They were doing their job,” she said. “There were some of them in real agony. To one poor chap, I said, ‘Would you like a cup of tea?’” 

She ended up making three rounds, carrying out the tray to the exhausted firefighters taking turns to tackle the flames. “I left the sugar there,” she smiled.

In all more than 30 firefighters helped put out the flames. They included six fire engines from Stratton, Swindon, Westlea and Cricklade fire stations. An aerial appliance from Swindon was also called to the scene, together with an operational response unit from Devizes.