Wedding proposal sets more than hearts ablaze

Michal Miklasz, 33, and Tamsyn Adams, also 33, pictured, were staying at her parents' holiday home in Alderney when the former decided to pop the question.

The couple, from Hertfordshire, are both traffic engineers and had been together since they met three years ago while working on the Olympic Games.

Michal's planning for his proposal was similarly meticulous.

After a romantic meal at the Braye Beach Hotel, he intended for them to take a taxi trip at dusk up to Fort Albert where they would be able to see a firework display that he had secretly arranged to take place on Braye Common.

Michal would then get down on one knee and ask for Tamsyn's hand in marriage.

But it was more than the flames of love that his proposal ended up fanning.

'Tamsyn has been coming to Alderney since she was four years old and I knew it was a very special place for her,' he said.

'It has also become traditional to go up to Fort Albert in the evening to look at the views over the harbour and Braye Beach and at the stars. The idea of fireworks came because Tamsyn is a Katy Perry fan and she loves the song, "Firework".

'I decided that Saturday would be the best day to do it because good weather was forecast. I'd arranged for the fireworks to go off at 9.30pm when it got dark. Everything went smoothly 'up to a point,' he said.

'We had a lovely meal and I called Mark Maurice, who was setting off the fireworks, as we set off. I didn't know what to expect with the fireworks really – but they were amazing. Then I got down on one knee. It took a minute or so before I heard 'yes' – I was so thrilled.'

Tamsyn had suspected something was up, as they had been up Fort Albert the night before, but never imagined the scale of what Michal planned.

'The fireworks were very romantic and I was impressed by the effort he had put into it – it was definitely 10 out of 10,' she said.

It was only then that they realised the pyrotechnic spectacle had not quite finished.

'We could see a big fire, not where the fireworks were, but behind that to the right of the scramble track,' said Michal. 'Initially it looked like someone was having a bonfire there, but then it started spreading quite quickly. We started thinking that it must have had something to do with the fireworks. We started to feel a bit panicky about it and thought we had better call the fire brigade. We were worried about how much of the island was going to go up.'

By that time someone else had already called the island's volunteer fire service, which took an hour to put out the blazing bracken and gorse.