FIRECREWS from Yelverton, Bere Alston and Plymouth were called to deal with a potential explosion at a property in Milton Combe this week.

The crews were originally called to deal with a blaze at Blowiscombe Cottage just after 8am on Monday.

Leading firefighter Alan Brown said: 'The building was well burned out by the time we got there — the problem was that the garage had acetylene, oxygen, propane and argon gas cylinders in there.'

Mr Brown said it was 'very lucky indeed' that the gas cylinders had not ignited during the fire, which completely destroyed everything inside the building, including several vintage cars which were undergoing restoration.

'These cylinders had got super-heated, so we had to evacuate the area and set up ground monitors — you can't muck around with gas cylinders,' said Mr Brown.

Fire crews remained at the property for the next 24 hours constantly to play water over the cylinders, cooling them down safely.

The Yelverton crews have also been called to three vehicle fires during the last week, at Pound car park on Thursday night, at Maristow Quay in the early hours of Saturday morning and at Yelverton aerodrome near Knightstone on Sunday night.

Arson is suspected in all three cases — in Sunday night's incident, a Ford Granada was driven into the wreck of a previously burnt out car, then both vehicles were set alight.