For Robert Marsden, seeing his home go up in flames and almost completely destroyed was "soul-destroying".

Marsden's house was part of a terrace in Sheffield which suffered major damage after a neighbour's garden bonfire spread out of control during the July heatwaves.

Marsden lost around 70% of his family home and even slept inside the charred shell for two weeks after burglars targeted one of the other damaged houses.

He said: "It was just soul-destroying to see everything that you've got for your family, gone - and it was gone in minutes."

Five properties on Fox Hill Road in Grenoside were affected by the fire which spread from back gardens at about 04:00 BST on 23 July.

A 59-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of criminal damage – arson endangering life, and criminal damage – arson not endangering life. He has since been released on bail pending further investigations.

Marsden was away visiting relatives at the time, and the only person in the house was his daughter-in-law.

She lives in the property with Marsden's son, his 10-year-old daughter and his granddaughter, 12.

He said: "That was the main thing. My daughter was meant to stay there with her that night.

"And, but for the grace of God, she decided at 10 o'clock that night to stay with her mum instead, or she would have been in the bedroom where all that damage occurred."

Marsden was called in the early hours of the morning about the fire, and rushed back to find "every ceiling was down".

"There was 60 years worth of soot mixed in with thousands of gallons of water and no roof."

A builder by trade, Marsden has decided to rebuild his home himself, with the "tremendous help" of friends who also work in the industry.

He is currently renting a property, but initially stayed at the roofless house for two weeks to prevent it from being looted.

Marsden said his neighbour had already been targeted and had their jewellery stolen.

"So that's why I moved back into my own house to stop what we had got left from being taken.

"I was so frightened - not that I've not got a million pounds worth of stuff hiding around - it's just the bits that we had left."

He added: "I refused to let that go as well."

Marsden said during that fortnight he was not "probably not functioning at 100% mentally" and it was damp with a constant smell of burning. His electricity had been cut off, but has since been reconnected.

"I wouldn't advise it - but it was a protection mode for what we've got," he added.

Marsden was assisted by councillor Yvonne Sykes, who represents the Southey ward on Sheffield City Council and pushed for him to be found suitable accommodation.

"These are far from ideal living conditions and one of the worst and most shocking things about this is that some of the properties were burgled in the aftermath of the fire."

Marsden is waiting for his insurance company to assess the damage and in the meantime is doing repairs himself.

Sykes added: "This has been a pretty traumatic event, not just for Rob but for this whole community."

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