A DERELICT terrace house has gone up in flames for the second time in five months prompting residents to hit out at Swindon Council for not taking action sooner.

The house in Deburgh Street in Rodbourne, which has been empty for more than two years, was set on fire back in December and boarded up, much to residents’ dismay.

But shortly before 10pm on Wednesday night, fire crews were called to the scene once again after a second fire ripped through the property.

Nobody was injured and the adjoining homes were not damaged, but the incident has angered residents, who say their desperate attempts to have the property dealt with by the council have failed.

Brian Breakspear, 72, has lived just one door away from the house with his wife Maureen since 1964.

“It was me that called the fire brigade this time because I had just gone to bolt the gate in the garden and I smelt the smoke,” he said. “It wasn’t too scary because we are just so used to it now, but when I saw all the smoke billowing up through the roof it was getting a bit too close for comfort.

“I spoke to the fire brigade and told them I was worried about my wife because she is very ill, and so they sent a paramedic in to see her, but she was fine.

“The fire was raging from the floor all the way through to the roof and everybody was out in the street watching. The council just don’t want to know, the place is an absolute eyesore and it ruins the street.

“I’d personally like to see them bulldoze it and start off fresh – but each time they just send somebody round to board it up and we are back to square one again.”

Alan Warburton, 73, lives opposite the house which he says is attracting antisocial behaviour.

“Everybody knows it is empty so it is causing problems and people are dumping all their rubbish there – there are dead rats there and everything, it’s a disgrace.”

At the height of the blaze, fire appliances from Swindon, Westlea, Stratton and Wootton Bassett were in attendance, as well as the aerial appliance from Swindon, the incident command vehicle from Stratton and the fire victim support unit from Westlea.

Ian Jeery, Group Commander for Swindon and North East Wiltshire, described the fire as severe. He said: “We think the fire started to the rear of the property, but when we arrived on scene the house was boarded up, including all the windows, and we could see that there was a severe fire inside.

“As the house was boarded up it made it quite difficult to extinguish early – we made an initial assessment that it was unsafe to send crews inside so we had to fight the fire predominantly from outside – we could get round the back of the property so we came at it from both directions.

“We also went into both adjacent properties to ensure the fire hadn’t spread, these homes were evacuated.”

A council spokesman said the cabinet agreed last year to seek approval from the Department for Communities and Local Government for a Compulsory Purchase Order for the house.

“Unfortunately, this is a lengthy process and while we are trying to progress with it as quickly as possible, this case has proved to be particularly difficult due to legal issues surrounding the ownership of the property,” he said.“However, it is the council’s intention ...to bring it back into use.”

A local man has been arrested on suspicion of arson with intent to endanger life.

Anyone with any information should contact Detective Sergeant Joe Saunders on 101 or Crimestoppers, anonymously is required, on 0800 555 111.