Yahoo News Raging fire caught on film after man torched flat
A man torched his flat then suggested the inferno could have been cased by a faulty smoke alarm. Michael Thomas started two fires in his flat in the converted chapel causing tens of thousands of pounds damage and leaving himself homeless.
Thomas denied arson saying visitors to his flat earlier that day may have lit the fire and even suggesting that it could have been caused by a spark from a smoke alarm but was convicted at trial of arson. The court heard the defendant is unable to explain how the incident happened.
During the trial at Swansea Crown Court prosecution barrister James Hartson said the blaze happened on November 19, 2022, at the former Smyrna Welsh Baptist Chapel in Port Talbot, which had been converted into flats. The emergency services were called to a fire at a ground-floor flat and on arrival found the property well alight. The ferocity of the fire was illustrated by a neighbour who filmed some of the incident on a mobile phone. In the footage the flames can be seen licking the outside of the building as they reach up towards towards the flats on the upper floors. The jury was reminded of the horrors of the Grenfell Tower when a fire in a lower level flat spread quickly upwards to others.
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The court heard the subsequent investigation found there had been two separate seats of fire in the flat – one in Thomas' bedroom and one in the bathroom – and that the bedroom door had been shut when firefighters entered the property. At trial the 46-year-old defendant denied causing the fire and suggested it may have been started by friends who were at the flat shortly before the blaze broke out or by a faulty fire alarm which he said he had seen sparking. A fire investigator with Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service who gave evidence to the jury said in his two decades of experience he had never seen a smoke alarm causing a fire.
Michael Thomas, now of no fixed abode, had previously been convicted at trial of arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered when he returned to the dock for sentencing. He has no previous convictions.
Jon Tarrant, for Thomas, said the defendant wanted to apologise to the court for not cooperating in the preparation of pre-sentence report and psychiatric reports. He said the defendant was having "psychiatric input" in prison and said his enforced abstinence from the "considerable amount" of cider he had been consuming had led to a noticeable improvement in his health. The advocate added that Thomas was still unable to explain why the incident happened and said the result of the fire had been the loss of something he had craved, namely stable accommodation.
Judge Huw Rees sentenced Thomas to three years in prison. The defendant will serve up to half that sentence in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.
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