Massive house blaze at Dilton Marsh (From Wiltshire Times)

Massive house blaze at Dilton Marsh

12:55pm Saturday 28th January 2012 in Westbury By Mike Wilkinson, Senior Reporter

A tumble dryer caused a massive blaze at a Dilton Marsh home on Friday night which forced the closure of a neighbouring road as it ripped through a next door property.

Extensive damage was caused to the roof of a house at Tower Hill after a fire spread from the tumble dryer in a conservatory.

A resident of the house escaped unharmed as the fire spread to the first floor.

Six fire crews from Warminster, Trowbridge, Bradford on Avon and Mere attended at 8.45pm. A hydraulic platform from Swindon, a control unit from Devizes and a victim support unit from Swindon, manned by Red cross volunteers, were also in attendance.

Police and paramedics from the Great Western Ambulance Service also attended to support the crews.

The A3098 was closed to all traffic during the blaze and remained closed until the early hours of Saturday.

The adjoining property was also damaged during the fire.

Engineers from Southern Electricity attended to isolate power lines to allow the hydraulic platform to extinguish the fire safely.

A Wiltshire Fire and Rescue spokesperson said: "The fire is believed to have started in a tumble dryer located in the conservatory but further investigations are in progress to determine the cause.

"No smoke alarms were fitted at the property and luckily the occupier was alerted to the fire by the smoke.

"People are reminded to ensure that smoke alarms are fitted and tested. We give free home safety advice and can conduct free home safety checks and fit smoke alarms to the vulnerable members of our communities."