A MOTOR enthusiast has seen years of hard work shot down in flames by a devastating fire at his workshop.

Wayne Evans, 39, was alerted to the blaze when a neighbour called the fire service to the building on Stanney Lane, Little Stanney, shortly after 4am on Monday.

But despite Mr Evans' vain attempts to extinguish the blaze, it soon took hold and destroyed his beloved collection of two Jeeps, believed to date from the Second World War, a motorbike, a buggy and other assorted personal items.

The workshop also contained a gas canister thought to be acetylene, which is a potentially explosive and dangerous gas. As a result, firefighters and police set up a 200m exclusion zone around the property as a safety measure.

Speaking to the Pioneer later on the day of the fire, Mr Evans was devastated.

He said: 'I have spent more than 10 years restoring the two Jeeps and spent thousands of pounds looking after them. My dad has helped me and so has my girlfriend. She owns one of the vehicles and we are all gutted about this.

'The Jeeps weren't worth much money but we used to ride them off-road in Wales. The restoration project was nearly finished and all our hard work was to be featured in a national magazine.'

Station Officer Steve Flanagan said: 'We have a special procedure for when we think an acetylene gas cylinder is present, which is why we cordoned off the area.

'The fire took about two hours to extinguish and, after letting the cylinder cool down, it was then placed in a nearby pond to cool down further.

'The cylinder needed to be treated with extreme caution because it can be very unstable and prone to explosion.

'Only later did we find out that it was an oxygen cylinder, which is far less dangerous. However, it was necessary to carry out the procedure for safety reasons.'

Mr Flanagan added: 'It was a well-contained fire and there was no danger to adjoining properties. One appliance remained at the scene until early afternoon to dampen down the site.

'It seems the cause of the fire was an electrical fault.'