1st May, 2013

Actor & director Richard E. Grant narrowly escaped a terrifying house fire on Wednesday after a blaze broke out at his home.

ABOVE: Press night performance of ‘Peter And Alice’ at the Noel Coward Theatre, London

A construction worker accidentally ignited a tree while working on the roof of Grant’s house, but a team of firefighters arrived just in time to extinguish the blaze and save the property from going up in flames.

The Withnail & I star took to his Twitter.com page to detail the frightening incident, writing, “Flat roofer’s blow torch set conifers on fire & 999 (emergency services) heroic fire brigade arrived pronto presto & have just put it out. Nerves shredded. Pheeeew… Merciful thanks for a windless day & fire brigade’s emergency response otherwise firemen reckoned my garage & house would have been toast…

“Weird how shock reaction delays itself. Now got the shakes like someone coming off methadone. Deep breaths.”

The star has blamed the builders for starting the blaze and insists he has yet to receive an apology for the drama.

He adds, “No prizes for guessing who I would like to blowtorch right now! And still got to pay the f**kers! This being the 21st century there is no apology or taking responsibility. It’s always someone else’s or something’s fault. Drives me balmy (barmy).”

It is thought that sparks from builders who were working on an outbuilding in the garden landed on the conifers, setting them on fire.

Firefighter Warren Stanborough, who was at the scene, said: “We received a 999 call to some trees on fire and dashed to the scene to help out.”

“The builders were using their own hose so we helped them out and together damped the flames. Fortunately the fire didn’t spread and no further damage was caused. Mr Grant was very grateful and thanked us for being so speedy. He wanted to know whether we’d bill him for the incident, which of course we won’t!”

He added: “If you ever see a fire or have one yourself, we’d advise you to immediately dial 999 and we’ll come out and deal with the incident.”

A London Fire Brigade spokeswoman said firefighters attended the incident in Richmond, south west London, just before 10.30am and quickly extinguished the blaze. One fire engine from nearby Kingston fire station and five firefighters attended the incident.