A DODWORTH man’s 70th birthday celebrations have been put on hold after a garage fire.
Ian Harley and his wife Pat had only been out for 30 minutes on Wednesday when they returned to find the integral garage at their home on Cinder Hills Way on fire.
Nobody was injured and the fire was confined to the garage.
But Ian, who celebrates his 70th birthday tomorrow, said there was smoke damage throughout the property. It comes only two months after Ian ended up in hospital after suffering smoke inhalation fighting a grass fire in an adjacent field which he had feared would spread to his house. Ian said: “After I was in hospital with smoke inhalation from the grass fire at the beginning of August, people are saying I’ll stop at nothing to get in the firemen’s calendar.”
In Wednesday’s incident, Ian and Pat had left the house to go to the doctors and arrived back to find the garage was on fire.
“There was nothing we could do. We opened the garage and were met by black smoke and heat,” he said.
“We got outside and phoned the fire service which appeared in double-quick time. By the time they got there, paint cans had exploded, the tumble dryer was in there and the fridge-freezer was gone. There was damage to the central heating boiler but thankfully it didn’t go up. There is smoke damage throughout the house. It’s just a good job we got back when we did or the whole house would have gone bang.
“It’s my 70th birthday tomorrow, so it’s not the best present.”
Ian said there were lots of ‘bits and bobs’ in the garage such as appliances, golf clubs and other things, though there had never been room for a car.
He added: “I’ve no idea what the final bill will be, but it will be several thousands of pounds. We are just happy nobody was inured and it could have been so much worse.
“The fire service suspect it was the tumble dryer, which my wife had put on just before we set off.
“We’ve got a lot of sorting out to do. I think there will be a lot of painting and redecorating but hopefully the insurance will go some way towards that.”
A spokesman from South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue said: “An emergency report was received at 4.05pm on Wednesday.
“Two crews from Barnsley and one from Tankersley station rushed to the blaze on Cinder Hills Way, which was in a property’s attached garage. Crews spent 30 minutes dealing with the incident and no-one was injured.”
