Fire decimates shed contents in Rohais de Haut

But a still Saturday morning helped stop the blaze spreading to neighbouring properties.

Julie and Steve O’Reilly have lived in their home for about 40 years and built the solid structure at the bottom of their garden as a workshop and storage shed.

At about 7.45am on Saturday, Mrs O’Reilly had just got up and looked into the back garden. She was shocked to see smoke pouring from the single storey structure. She rushed back to her husband and said she thought the shed was on fire.

‘He just jumped out of bed and we called 999,’ she said.

‘We could hear popping and lots of noise.’

They sensibly kept back and as they waited Mr O’Reilly said it felt like the firefighters took a long time to arrive, although it was only a few minutes.

Red watch crew commander Alex Clark said they arrived at about 8am and found the structure, 8m by 3m, well alight.

Firefighters donned breathing apparatus and used a hose to extinguish the blaze.

Mrs O’Reilly said they were very relieved no one was hurt and the fire had not spread.

‘That was my worry,’ she said

‘But fortunately there was no wind.’

Thanks to the building’s solid construction, the fire was largely contained.

But the inside was devastated.

‘There were three electric bikes in there,’ Mr O’Reilly said.

‘And the frames just melted. There is nothing left. The firefighters said it was 1,000 degrees in there.’

Firefighters left the scene shortly after 9am.

The cause of the fire is not known.