THIS is the dramatic moment a bin store erupted into a huge fireball just inches from a block of homes as residents slept – following a suspected arson attack.
Ruth Galloway – whose maisonette is directly above where the fire started – woke up her two sons, before banging on neighbours’ doors and calling the fire brigade.
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The 48-year-old and her kids, Harold, 20, and 19-year-old Arthur, then found their exit blocked off, with flames licking up the staircase down to ground level.
Ruth told The Sun: “We learned later that the bin store is immediately below a mains gas pipe – that’s the worrying bit.”
She explained how she’d been “dozing” at around 1.30am in her home in Bishop Cleeves, Tewkesbury, last Friday (July 4) when she heard a “crackling” sound.
Initially thinking it was her radio, she turned it off but the noise continued, “then there was a massive bang”.
“I ran downstairs to my balcony and realised the bin stores were on fire,” she said.
Ruth then shouted to her sons “there’s a fire, get out of bed!” before carrying her nervous pet Patterdale dog Mookie in her arms.
“The stairs are right next to our house, so there was flames licking our wall,” she continued.
“We exited down the other end. We had to walk the whole length, so I banged on as many doors as I could. I presume the fire brigade banged on the others.”
She said the firefighters arrived within four minutes.
“Thank God they did because they said if it had been burning for much longer the gas pipe would have gone and it would have taken the whole building with it,” Ruth explained.
The complex consists of 10 maisonettes in a row, above a row of shops and a nursery.
However, mum-of-two Ruth laughed when asked if she thought of herself as a hero.
“I was just trying to get out of the building, and make sure people were awake,” she said.
She said most of the other households have very young children.
“The poor bastards had to sit out there in the car park for five hours,” she continued.
One of Ruth’s sons took the video as the blaze raged towards the building.
“I was in shock because of our poor dog. He didn’t wake up at all, he just shook.
“He’s a bit of an anxious dog, I was just worrying about the dog for the first couple of hours, trying to calm him down.”
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It was around 6am when everyone was allowed back inside, with the bin stores and part of the building scorched from the fire.
The next day a representative from housing association Rooftop knocked on Ruth’s door to check the property.
“I’d only slept for about an hour,” she said. “I just told them we’re all just happy to be alive.”
She added: “If it had been going on any longer, if the gas would have exploded, or the flames were coming towards my front door… who knows what would have gone first.
“Either we’d have been blown to high heaven or we wouldn’t have been able to get out of the front door for flames. That was scary.”
‘Arson attacks’ & flytipping
Ruth said the same night several fires were also started nearby, including at a school just down the road.
“While we were waiting for the firefighters to put out our fire, there was another one lit at the school,” she recalled.
“You could see this bright light suddenly appear. Whoever was doing it had the brass balls to do another one while the fire brigade were a hundred metres away, and the police were here too.”
Ruth said there was plenty of fuel in her complex’s bins due to a major fly-tipping issue which has been ongoing since she moved into the property in December last year.
As a result, the bin men often neglect to empty them at all, she claims.
“I’ve been going on about to it to my housing officer since I moved in, I just thought it was a fire risk itself – I didn’t realise there was a gas pipe,” she said.
“The gas line comes up from the ground and up the wall.”
Ruth said the pipe’s been chopped off where it was melted by the flames but the exterior armour “just about held”.
“Thank God for that – the inside plastic pipe had melted, hence there was a massive gas leak afterwards.”
Referring to the flytipping, Ruth went on to say: “We have fly tippers from all around. The material for fuel in the store was immense because people just come and bring furniture.
“The one attached to my building is supposed to be just for recycling – Tewkesbury Borough Council has refused to collect it for I don’t know how long.”
“It feels like no one gives a s***. I’ve saved not only the housing association’s building but also its residents and the businesses underneath.
Ruth Galloway
She added: “It’s only me that’s worried about the fire risk because I’m attached.”
Her neighbour, mum-of-three Chantelle Goodwin said: “The bins for our houses have been a nightmare ever since I moved in a year ago.
“People come round and fly tip on them and they are over loaded and they then don’t get collected for weeks on end.
“There is only four green bins for 10 houses, it’s not enough. Every single house by me has kids in and most of us have three kids.”
She went on to say, her kids, aged three, five and seven, “have been so scared” to go to bed because of the fire.
“They are worried that they are going to woken up from bangs on the door telling us to get out the house again, and the gas leaking out that may have caused an explosion.
“I don’t feel safe living here with three kids,” Chantelle said, adding the CCTV cameras don’t even work so it’ll like be impossible to catch whoever may have started the blaze.
Building regulations
Ruth researched what building regulations are in place relating to bin stores close to properties and found they must be constructed from “non-combustible materials that hold fire for 30 minutes if attached to a building”.
However, the bins are plastic and the stores are wooden.
Referring to the housing association, she said: “They must be crapping themselves, they must have known it (the bin store) shouldn’t have been built right next to an exit.”
On top of that, due to the gap under the stores, she said there’s been a massive rat problem.
“It’s all been a bit of a mess. I’ve been very angry, quite rightly so,” said Ruth.
“It feels like no one gives a s***. I’ve saved not only the housing association’s building but also its residents and the businesses underneath.”
She added: “I’m not trying to bash the housing association particularly, but I know there must be blocks of flats with the same issue and I don’t want anyone to go through this.”
Ruth said since the fire she’s been unable to sleep and has been replaying the moment in her mind.
“I have to stop myself and say no, get over it,” she explained. “It’s something I’ve got to come to terms with but I’ve had nightmares where I wake up with a jolt.”
Peter Tonge, Director of Communities at the council, said: “We’ve been working with Rooftop Housing to help residents manage the areas and understand their responsibilities.
“We encourage waste and recycling issues to be reported as soon as possible so that we can help to resolve them.
“We’ve had assurance from Rooftop Housing that they have offered support to residents and are reviewing options for the waste and recycling stores site.”
The Sun has also contacted Rooftop Housing for comment.
Do you know more? Email ryan.merrifield@thesun.co.uk
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