Two vehicles and a large quantity of welding equipment are thought to have been destroyed when fire swept through a garage in a York village.

Garage owner Allan Busby: suffered burns to head

Among the equipment and tools stored in the double garage in Hopgrove Lane South, Stockton-on-the-Forest, were acetylene cylinders which could have exploded because of the intense heat generated by the flames.

Firefighters had to hose the garage with water for two hours in order to bring temperatures down and prevent the cylinders from exploding.

Station officer Jeremy Rushworth, of North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, said: "There was a lot of combustible material in the garage.

"And if acetylene gets heated it decomposes and becomes very unstable - there is a strong risk of an explosion.

"We kept the hoses running on the garage for about two hours to cool down the tanks before anyone went inside to extinguish the remaining flames."

Firefighters, who were called out to the blaze just before 4.15pm yesterday, said the column of smoke rising from the flames was visible for miles around.

They found the garage was well alight by the time they arrived and had moved into the roof of a bungalow, joined to the rear of the garage.

"You could see a big plume of smoke from the city," said Station Officer Rushworth.

"You could see it as you came from Malton Road but we got the fire under control very quickly although it had spread into the roof cavity of the bungalow.

"We had a crew working in the loft for 20 minutes to put it out."

Three fire engines from York and Malton were sent to the blaze and three hose lines were hooked up to tackle the flames.

Firefighters administered first aid to garage owner Allan Busby, who had burned his forehead as he pushed a kit car out of the blazing garage to safety.

The garage was severely damaged in the blaze and it is estimated that half the tools were destroyed.

The bungalow was also damaged by the fire, which the fire service said is thought to have been started when Mr Busby was carrying out welding work.

A spark is thought to have landed in a bundle of rags and rapidly spread to various flammable materials in the garage.

A fire service spokesman said the garage, which was twice the length and twice the width of a normal garage, had been used to restore old cars and a lot of tools and welding equipment had been stored in it.

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