Family left picking up the pieces as fire destroys home

Firefighters battle to contain a blaze at a home in East Preston PHOTO: Eddie Mitchell

Jack Symons was cleaning inside his parents’ thatched cottage, in Tamarisk Way, East Preston, when there was a power cut on Sunday evening (January 19).

Unbeknown to Jack, a fire was raging on his home’s thatched rooftop.

It was only when keen-eyed security guards Sean Wilson, 27, and Peter Stringer, 48, of Worthing-based Assured Security Guarding Ltd, who had been on a routine patrol of the area, banged on his front door, that Jack realised about the impending danger and evacuated.

Minutes later, the £1.3m house was in flames, with firefighters from across the county battling to extinguish the inferno.

Speaking exclusively to the Gazette, Jack, 26, said: “I’m so thankful for the guards’ warning. I’m not saying I could have died, necessarily, but the possibility was there.

“I had no idea the house was on fire. No smoke alarms went off. I did not know.”

For Jack’s dramatic full story, see tomorrow’s Littlehampton Gazette (Thursday, January 23).