Homeless man loses personal possessions and pet dog in minibus fire

[dutchman]

Smoke from the fire could be seen billowing across the city



A man watched on in horror as fire engulfed the converted minibus he was living in and destroyed nearly all of his worldly possessions.

David Wainwright also lost one of his beloved pet dogs in the blaze in Earlsdon on Monday afternoon.

The minibus, which David was living in after losing his previous accommodation, burst in to flames as it stood in Farman Road and then rolled in to a nearby house after the handbrake snapped in the heat of the fire.

David tried to get near to the minibus to try and rescue his pet dogs but the heat of the inferno was too hot for him to do so.

Fortunately one of his dogs, which he has had since it was a puppy, survived.

Recalling what happened, David said: "I was in the bus and the lady who lives a few doors down knocked on my door and said 'I've got some food for you in here', so I went round, spoke to her and in a matter of minutes the chap who lives at the end came round and said 'your bus is on fire'.

"I registered the words for a second or two and then ran out, saw the extent of the flames coming from the windscreen and under the bonnet - the whole front of the bus was on fire.

"I then realised that my two dogs are in the vehicle, ran round to the back of the vehicle to try to open the doors to save the two dogs. I didn't see either of them jump out and I thought I had lost them both.

"It later transpired that one has turned up and one was on the bus."

David called 999 himself and said the flames were "licking up" higher than the roof of a nearby home.

"I got to within 20/30ft of it and it was scorching my arm. It was blisteringly hot," he added.

Smoke from the fire could be seen billowing across the city.

It is believed the fire may have been started by an electrical fault and two other cars in the street were also damaged by the fire.

Speaking of his current living conditions, David explained: "I've been living on the bus for the last three or four days after losing my rented accommodation.

"So the plans was to live on that for a while, save some money up and start renting again.

"I've got some stuff in storage but all my important stuff was on there with me."

[rebbonk]

I have a feeling that we only know part of this story.

[dutchman]

Picture taken by Google before the fire...