A classic car bought by a husband for his wife's 60th birthday went up in flames just three days before Christmas.
A £6,500 MG Midget, bought by Malcolm Shingler-Day for his wife Beverley, plus a £2,000 Spartan kit car, were engulfed by fire in the garage at their home in Finsbury Drive, Priorslee, Telford on Friday afternoon.
Malcolm had spent thousands renovating the MG, both mechanically and on a smart new interior so the couple, who have been married for 33 years, could enjoy days out in it.
And he bought the Spartan to keep his mind occupied when Beverley was battling cancer in 2014.
A £6,500 MG Midget, bought by Malcolm Shingler-Day for his wife Beverley, plus a £2,000 Spartan kit car, were engulfed by fire in the garage at their home in Finsbury Drive, Priorslee, Telford on Friday afternoon.
Malcolm had spent thousands renovating the MG, both mechanically and on a smart new interior so the couple, who have been married for 33 years, could enjoy days out in it.
And he bought the Spartan to keep his mind occupied when Beverley was battling cancer in 2014.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 So Malcolm we've just done a prize lea and the remnants of your two beautiful cars
00:07 what did you have in here Malcolm? MG Midgets, one of the last 500's. It's quite a special one that, did them all in black I believe?
00:16 Yeah all renovated over furlough, that was laid off so we renovated the front end.
00:25 A lot of hours of love and care have gone into that. All the interior was revamped.
00:33 That took about two years, we've enjoyed a couple of years driving in it.
00:38 And then you've got the Spartan kit over there as well. Yeah, 2014 I got stuck into that.
00:45 It's one of those things I was hoping to retire and when I retired to get stuck into it again.
00:52 The engine and gearbox and everything was overhauled on that so that's all done.
00:57 I mean as we can see we'll show on a pan absolutely gutted at the minute.
01:01 You've started from a light we believe in the garage, you had a camera on the go?
01:07 Yeah I got a camera inside, that was from my son's bike when he had one and I just left it in there.
01:13 But we found out it was one of the lights that malfunctioned.
01:16 So the first you knew power went off in the house, you're looking around what's going on and you come out luckily to inspect.
01:24 And you were quite quick onto it weren't you?
01:27 I saw there's smoke coming but I thought it was the back fence that was on fire.
01:31 I went round the side and I found out that the glass was hot there and I thought that's not the fence.
01:36 So hence it was the garage.
01:39 And you said the fire service were great, they were sharpish and have been great, big credit to them.
01:44 Worth mentioning there was a passing taxi wasn't there just the smoke starting to billow from these doors?
01:52 Yeah he would have sort of helped us a few.
01:55 Well yeah that was probably before you got the alarmers raised wasn't it?
01:59 Before the power went off I might have been able to have got in here and salvaged something.
02:04 So a message to anyone passing a house with smoke coming from the garage, please stop and tap the door at least.
02:11 Well he could have just called in couldn't he and said I've seen smoke coming out of a house in Friesland.
02:20 So standing here looking at this, as I say these aren't cars you've just bought off the peg and brought them home.
02:26 It must leave you feeling pretty gutted.
02:29 Yeah gutted yeah.
02:31 Do you think there might be a bit of life in some of these to continue as a project?
02:35 Possibly that one, I don't know about the spot, I think that's died.
02:40 Yeah that's to get the wings for them now it's struggling.
02:43 Yeah so you might have to readjust those retirement plans.
02:47 Yeah it looks like it.
02:51 I guess the message is to people, you were quick on it, you'd got your camera going which identified where the fire was.
02:59 So it's just to show that these fires can spring up from nowhere can't they Mark?
03:04 Yeah, 16 minutes from start to finish.
03:07 Yeah, so people just be vigilant, be aware, neighbours be vigilant and aware if they see anything.
03:14 Yeah definitely.
03:16 You still going to enjoy Christmas this year Mark?
03:19 Yeah, amongst sorting out the insurance I suppose so.
03:25 Yeah all the best going forward with it Mark.
03:27 Thank you.