Page 47 - It's a Rum Life Book One "In the Beginning 1947 to 1960"

THE INCIDENTS
Not long after returning to 129, my passion for ‘Airfix’ model
aeroplanes developed to such an extent that there were
sufficient to occupy an imaginative model ‘aircraft carrier’
constructed from orange boxes and located in the dormer
window area.
The ‘flare path’ on the flight-deck using birthday cake
candles was my undoing and brought about the end of my much
cherished aircraft collection. It was a draught from the partly
opened window one winters evening that swept a net curtain
across the flare path as my back was turned for just a second.
The flames leaped across the entire window area with a flash
and I found myself stamping across the flight deck to reach the
net curtain wires with my bare hands and bring them down so I
could smother the rapidly spreading inferno.

(Only picture available of 129
London Road shwoing the top front
dormer window!)
At the same moment a passing
motorist seeing the flames spreading
upwards in the dormer window area,
abandoned his car in the road, raced down our garden path and
hammered on the front door of the house. Admitted by my
grandmother, he swept past her grabbing the inside doormat on
the way and shouting that the house was on fire.
He must have been a relatively young chap as he rapidly
mounted the three long flights of stairs. He was by my side in no
time at all, I was pleased to see him arrive but by that time I had
the situation under control. The flames were out and all that
remained was a smouldering mix of charred net curtain, hot wire

47