House and telegraph pole damaged as rubbish fire spreads

Firefighters were called to the back of Spring Street in Bury at around midnight on Saturday.

The flames engulfed a nearby home on Shepherd Street damaging a newly built extension and kitchen.

A telegraph pole in the back street was also burnt and cabling damaged leading to compromised phone and wifi for nearby residents, it is understood.

Mazhar Mahmood , aged 54, who has lived in the property which was damaged in the fire since 1988 with his wife and four children, said: "I was laying down just after I had come back from work when the kids started screaming "Dad look there's smoke."

"It was about midnight when I realised so I ran out and the fire brigade were here and they had extinguished it.

"We have just had an extension done. There's smoke damage to the kitchen roof.

"It was quite worrying because when I saw the fire brigade starting to rip the tiles off my roof I was wondering what kind of damage it's going to leave."

He added: "I'm also worried that if they don't keep on top of the flytipping something like this could happen again.

"Residents do clean up the flytipping periodically but it's happening quite a lot, and in neighbouring streets too. It's unscrupulous people dumping things.

"I'm sure some of the residents may throw things there, but most of it is flytipping. 

"I have told councillors that the flytipping needs shifting, and we have suggested that they put gates on the street."

Steve Wilcock, Watch Manager at Bury Fire Station, said: "It was a well developed fire.

"Rubbish has been dumped in the street and someone has set it on fire.

"One resident had just had an extension to the house and we had remove the fascia boards, but luckily it did not spread into the roof. I don't know if wifi routers have been affected.

"I did feel sorry for the residents because it is not their rubbish people are coming down and just dumping it and flytipping is a fire risk."

Crews were on the scene for 40 minutes.