A COUPLE saw their detached half-a-million pound house reduced to a “burnt out shell” after a fire spread with devastating speed.

Their four-bedroom home in Barton-on-Sea was gutted by a blaze on Friday morning that made the roof completely collapse.

The property, built in 1934 and advertised for sale at £525,000, was left with a severely damaged first floor and smoke and water damage to the ground floor.

Owner John Stopher said it had been the family home for 36 years and his wedding photos had probably been destroyed.

He said he was gardening when a neighbour shouted “John, your house is on fire!”

The 69-year-old, a retired environmental health officer, said: “I went upstairs, poked the door open and whoosh!

“Thick black smoke came out across my head and singed my hair.

“I didn’t waste any time getting out. At least I knew my smoke alarms were working because they were going bananas.”

Hampshire Fire and Rescue were called at 11.30am and had four fire engines, two specialist vehicles and 35 fire fighters and support staff there at the height of the blaze.

But they were seriously hampered by a collapsed high voltage power cable that was jumping about and stopping them getting to one side of the house.

The fire engines also had to ferry water to the scene because the pressure was too low to support more than one or two pumps.

The old-fashioned plaster used in the construction was not fire resistant.

Group manager Dan Tasker, the incident commander, said: “At the moment all we have got is a burnt out shell and we simply don’t know what caused it.

“A fire investigator will work with a structural engineer to try and see why it spread so quickly.”

Mr Stopher, a guard on Swanage steam railway, said he believed the fire started in the study.

As he stood watching and smoking a pipe, he said: “Well – nobody was hurt. Houses can be knocked down, rebuilt, whatever.”

His wife Suzanne, 55, a registrar, said: “When you got to work in the morning it’s the last thing you expect to happen. I just can’t believe it.”

Police blocked traffic access on Dilly Lane itself and also at the junction with Barton Court Avenue.

Residents said the fire had spread quickly and plumes of smoke had billowed around neighbouring streets.

John Morgan, 38, a building worker from Highcliffe, said: “We saw the flames two metres in the air from the roof. The electricity was crackling away.”