Summer house fire ‘was started deliberately’

A MAN’S summer house burnt to the ground in a fire that is believed to have been started deliberately – just three years after another fire at his home.

Paul Brandon, from Ystalyfera, spent £6,000 transforming his garden after his garage burnt down in 2015, but on Tuesday night his summer house was burnt to the ground.

The 61-year-old was left with £35,000 worth of damage after the first incident in 2015, which also damaged his car beyond repair.

He never had the garage rebuilt and instead, this year decided to landscape his garden and install a summer house.

He said: “I was busy with my son getting the Christmas decorations in from the shed as we were putting the tree up in the lounge. I sent my son back out to get something and when he was walking back he could see a glow coming from the summer house and saw it was burning from the inside.

“It took four minutes for it to burn to the ground. It was terrifying as the flames were massive.

“We’d kind of just started to relax after the first time, so it was a massive shock for it to happen again.”

Mr Brandon, who suffers with fibromyalgia (a long-term condition that causes pain all over the body), used the summer house as a place where he could go to relax.

He had been asleep inside it just 40 minutes before the fire started.

Mr Brandon is now going to look at installing CCTV cameras in the garden to try and prevent this from happening a third time.

South Wales Police stated that it is thought that the fire was started deliberately.

Anyone with any information is asked to contact 101, quoting reference 1800468443.