Two years of work destroyed as fire rips through renovated flat

A TAXI driver says he has seen two years of decorating go up in smoke after a blaze ripped through his flat.

Joe Nagy, 40, had only just finished £5,000 of renovation to his flat in Craven Road, Hyson Green, when fire broke out in the early hours of yesterday.

It badly damaged his bed and covered the whole house with a layer of soot.

Mr Nagy said he was out working when he got a call from his neighbour Martty Watson about the fire.

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He rushed home and went into his first-floor flat.

He said: "I could see the fire from outside. I went up the stairs but I started choking on the smoke.

"When I got to the top of the stairs I couldn't see anything. I managed to close the door to my sons' bedroom but I couldn't get into my room, where the fire was.

"I went back outside and the fire brigade had arrived. They took over."

It is believed an electrical fault in Mr Nagy's laptop charger started the fire.

He added: "I've just spent two years decorating.

"I had been renting the flat but I moved back in and I've re-done the whole flat. Now it's wrecked. I can't believe it.

"I'm just glad that neither myself or my children were in at the time. I dread to think what could have happened."

Yesterday the two windows fronting on to Craven Road had black soot around them. One had smashed glass and was boarded up.

Inside the whole flat smelled of smoke and there was soot on the walls in all rooms.

Mr Nagy had to spend the night at his neighbour's after the fire and was due to stop at his mum's last night in Grantham. His children, aged between seven and four, were at their mum's home.

"I don't know where I'm going to stay now," he said.

Mrs Watson, 71, said she was watching TV when she noticed the fire in Mr Nagy's home. She called 999 and then Mr Nagy. She said: "I looked up and said to my son there was a light over the road.

"When I looked closer I said 'it's on fire'.

"I told my son to check if Joe's car was there, which would have meant he was in. Luckily he wasn't. You could see the flames in the window. It was really bad."

Notts Fire and Rescue said they sent two crews from Nottingham's Central Fire Station to the blaze at around 12.20am.