House fire started by squirrel disrupted funeral procession - Update

A funeral car broke rank mid-procession and sped off toward its passenger’s house where a squirrel had started a fire. Friend of the deceased Alby Tebbutt, 73, was in the final car of a procession in when he received an unwelcome phone call. “I had a fellow in my house putting a new bathroom in,” he said. “He had the window open and saw smoke coming out the garage roof. So he rang the fire brigade and then rang me.”

Mr Tebbutt initially believed the caller was pulling his leg – but as it dawned on him the fire was no wind-up he realised he had to get home, funeral or no funeral. “I said to the driver: ‘I’m telling you, my house is on fire. Go left here.' The driver said: ‘I can’t go left – I’m in a funeral.’ I said: ‘Never mind that. Turn left.’”



The driver did as he was bidden and chauffeured the former Conservative councillor, along with a number of family members of the deceased, to his home in Romford – pausing while Mr Tebbutt negotiated his way through a road block set up so the fire brigade could run a hose across the street. He arrived to find three fire crews battling the flames, which ended up damaging 50 per cent of the garage and costing upwards of £20,000. But it wasn’t until a fire investigation team pinpointed the cause of the incident that the strangest aspect of the afternoon’s proceedings came to light – the fire had been started by a squirrel.

Self-proclaimed “animal lover” Mr Tebbutt said he was nearing the end of his tether with the rodents. “I put nuts out for the birds but the squirrels keep eating them,” he said. “Whatever contraption I put up, they seem to beat me. It’s a battle between me and the squirrels. I put up with that but now they’ve set my house on fire I’ve decided I’m going to shoot them all.” Under UK law, it is legal to shoot grey squirrels but illegal to cause them unnecessary pain. The RSPCA warns that “squirrels may suffer if the shooting is not accurate”.

Previously.