The owner of the Eel Pie Island house gutted by a blaze today spoke of his heartbreak after losing the family home he spent 25 years building.
Clive Chapman, 55, an architect for the Riverside project, was sailing with his family in Cornwall when he got a call on Saturday night from a neighbour saying his house was on fire.
He had spent more than two decades building the house, which was completed in 2007, and described it as “a labour of love”.
'Heartbreak': Architect Clive Chapman today spoke of his devastation at losing the house he took 25 years to build
He said: “We got a call about 8.30pm to say ‘your house is on fire’. It started between the workshop and the house.
“She tried to put it out with the hose pipe but couldn’t and then rang the fire brigade.
“I think at the time there were five fire trucks and a fire boat there but there was a low tide and they had to get so much water from the river they had to let the river recover because it was soaked down to the river bed and the river couldn’t keep pace.
“It went through the night. We had a few friends call during the night and the island had to be evacuated.”
The father of two returned at 3pm yesterday to find the smouldering remains of his house sealed off by police.
Nothing left: Mr Chapman has spoken of his upset but pledged to rebuild his home 'as quickly as possible'
The award-winning architect said his family were staying with friends in the island, and he believed it would take him two years to rebuild his dream home.
He said: “I came to the island in 1980 and bought this plot in 1984.
”I couldn’t afford to do anything with it, it was a derelict plot and I’ve just been building it since then for over 25 years - a lot of it myself.
“We came back and it was all gone.
“I’m pretty upset but we’ve got to get on and rebuild it as quickly as possible.”
Residents were forced to flee their homes after the blaze broke out on Saturday at about 9.30pm.
An explosion was heard from the island in the River Thames, near Twickenham, and eyewitnesses reported seeing a fireball, and flames reaching up to 30ft high.
Residents could only look on in horror from the safety of the Twickenham riverside as huge flames engulfed the architect’s home. It is thought a gas cylinder exploded as the blaze took hold.
About 30 firefighters battled to control the fire which left the three-storey house and a workshop badly damaged and partially damaged a single storey house.
Gutted: The home of architect Clive Chapman today
Neighbours today described how they tried to battle the blaze.
Malou Marcussem, 37, was leaving her house to go for a drink with her friend Philip Jarman when they spotted the flames.
She said: “It had caught on quite well, it was between the main house and the workshop. It was going up the side catching the decking on the main house, it was pretty hot.”
They grabbed a garden hose and tried to fight the blaze but it was too big.
She said: “It was spreading very very fast, I don’t know whether the hose got too hot, but it was too late to put it out.
“We just realised straight away it was too big. I still feel I should have done something else or something more or gone in the house.”
Mrs Marcussem said she tried to alert neighbours before leaving the island and calling Mr Chapman.
She was on the other side of the river when she heard a “huge” explosion about half an hour later, which she believed was cylinders at Mr Chapman’s house.
Firefighters then decided to evict the whole island.
She added: “They didn’t know what it was, it could have been gas and if it got into the gas pipes it would have been the whole of the island that blows up.
“Then there were two smaller explosions afterwards, which must have been the lawn mower or petrol tank.”
Many residents took shelter at the Fox pub in Church Street, until firefighters said it was safe for them to return at about 4am.
'Labour of love': Clive Chapman's home on Eel Pie Island before the fire
Tom McAuley, who owns the Church Street pub, said: "It was a spectacular fire.
"To be honest it was a blessing there was no breeze as the whole island could have gone up."
Residents on the mainland also spoke of their shock.
Alec and Hilary Dunlop, owners of the Barmy Arms - a pub with a prime view of the island - described their horror as they heard an explosion and saw the flames appear over the trees on the island.
Hilary said: "I heard a big thump and went into the kitchen to have a look. The flames were huge and there was a great column of orange."
A spokesman for the London Fire Brigade said today: “There were a number of cylinders found in the building.
“Members of the fire brigade were on the island until Sunday because of the cylinder procedures.”
A Metropolitan Police spokeswoman confirmed today the fire was not being treated as suspicious, however parts of the island remain sealed off.
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