THIS WEEK IN 1995: Cigarette blaze was a honeymoon horror
A teenager who caused a blaze at his Havant home said he was dreading the return of his newly-wed parents from their honeymoon.
Matthew Edwards, 17, left a cigarette burning in an ashtray on the sofa while he cooked beef burgers in the kitchen of his home in Nutwick Road, Denvilles, at 9.30am.
When he went back in the lounge he found the sofa consumed by a ball of flames.
Matthew and his 16-year-old brother were living in the house on their own while their father Roger and his new wife Sharon honeymooned in Turkey.
The couple, who married on Easter Saturday, were due to return home a week later.
Matthew said: ‘I don’t know what my dad and step-mum are going to say.’