Vandals set light to valuable trees

12:35pm Tuesday 13th November 2001

A HAYES woman says she may have to leave her home after being terrified by vandals who burnt down her £1,000 fir trees.

Pensioner Josephine Forsyth, 75, suspects the fire in her garden could have been linked to other fires in the area at a similar time.

Mrs Forsyth was awoken to an orange glow in the bedroom of her Bourne Vale home at 12.15am on Friday, November 10, and discovered vandals had set fire to seven of her nine-foot-tall, 12-year-old fir trees.

A fire crew from Bromley fire station rushed to the scene to extinguish the blaze.

Firefighters from the station had also put out a fire in bins in nearby Letchworth Drive and a tree fire in a Beadon Road garden on the same night.

Station officer Peter Brown said: “At 12.02am, a crew was called to trees on fire in a garden in Beadon Road and at 12.15am a fire engine was sent to Bourne Vale to a similar fire. Some bins were also on fire in Letchworth Drive.”

“There is nothing to suggest they were linked but it is unusual for us to have two tree fires like that so close together outside summer.”

Mrs Forsyth said: “I was terrified. It was a huge fire and I thought it could spread through other gardens or explode the parked cars.

“I have often heard people walking up the road late at night, kicking cans around, but I've never known vandalism like this here before.

“It's put the kibosh on this house. I feel like looking for somewhere else to live.”

Hayes councillor Anne Manning said: “I'm horrified by these incidents but sad to say vandalism here is becoming more frequent, despite the image of Hayes as a peaceful place.

“There is an easy route to and from Bromley South station through the roads where the fires were, which some vandals could have used.

“All three ward councillors will be putting a motion on vandalism to the whole council in January.”

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