A houseowner has told how he joked about fire engines racing past just moments before he returned home to find his B-listed building engulfed in flames.
William Church, 66, of Aberdeen, had spent £60,000 over the last 25 years carefully restoring and maintaining the ceilings of an extension which were decorated by famous Glaswegian artist Daniel Cottier.
Eye surgeon Mr Church had just nipped to a DIY shop to pick up some supplies when he had to pull over to let a fleet a fire engines past.
After joking that he hoped they were not attending a fire at his home, Mr Church was left devastated when he returned to find the extension completely destroyed.
Mr Church now faces a £500,000 bill to repair the historic building in Aberdeen’s Bridge of Don area.
He said: “We were working on stripping paint from the veranda with the blow-lamp when we decided to go out and get some more materials.
“When we were driving back we were passed by three fire engines with sirens and blue lights and joked about them going to the house.
“We came over the brow of the hill on the drive and saw the firefighters and clouds of smoke and my heart just sank.”
Since 1988, Mr Church has spent all his free time restoring and maintaining the extension to his house, which sits on the banks of the River Don, and was almost finished on the project when disaster struck.
But despite the devastating fire, which took nearly 50 firefighters to put out, Mr Church has vowed to re-do all his hard work.
He said: “The house is my heart and soul and I have been working on it for more than 20 years and was almost done. Now it is all destroyed. The work to date has cost me around £60,000, with the two ceilings in the part of the building which was damaged costing £30,000 alone.
“While we lived in the other part, which survived, the part which was hit by the fire was definitely the most important. I think it is going to cost around £500,000 to repair it and I will put it back together again – the house means that much to me.”
But Mr Church will have a tough task ahead of him as the roof in the extension has collapsed and firefighters had to remove the remains to make the structure safe.
Kevin Burr, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service group manager said: “Firefighters worked hard in extremely arduous conditions to prevent the fire from spreading into the second part of the building and the roof.
“We had 11 vehicles, including six pumps, a height vehicle and specialist appliances on-scene, along with around 50 firefighters.
“I am pleased to say that the house had ample fire alarms within it, which were heard by a passer-by who alerted us to the fire.”
It is thought the blaze may have been started by material left smouldering after Mr Church used the blowtorch.
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