Ashford man, 88, killed in fire (From Your Local Guardian)

Ashford man, 88, killed in fire

5:01pm Tuesday 18th November 2008 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
• Comments(0)

An electrical fault is thought to have caused the fire which claimed the life of an 88-year-old man.

The body of Jack Webster was recovered from the ground floor of his home in Parkland Grove, Ashford, three hours after fire engines arrived outside number 38 at 2.20am yesterday.

Firefighters who were first on the scene were initially beaten back by the severity of the flames, but eventually entered the house wearing breathing aparatus and discovered Dr Webster’s body in a back room.

Specialist investigators are still finalising their report into the fire after picking through the wreckage of the gutted £600,000 four-bedroomed detached Edwardian house, but all signs point to an electrical fault in an appliance in a downstairs room being the cause.

A spokesman for Surrey Police told the Staines Guardian the cause of the fire was not being treated as suspicious, and that no one else had been inside the building. “A man in his eighties was pronounced dead at the scene,” he said.

Dr Webster, a widower whose son lived just round the corner, is believed to have lived in the house since just after the Second World War.

Fire crews from Staines, Sunbury, Chertsey, Egham and Epsom fought the blaze after being called by neighbours who smelt smoke shortly after 2am. The road was still cordoned off in mid-morning.

Dr Webster, a former BP employee, was described as a lively, active man who could regularly be seen out and about on his bicycle.