Letting agents and the fire department need a wake-up call.

On Tuesday night we noticed that the house next door, which is a holiday rental property, but had no one in it, had bright lights flashing inside like a disco.

When we realised it was a faulty light, and knowing that electrical faults are one of the main causes of house fires, we called the property letting agents, but it does not have an emergency line. It was one o’clock in the morning and we and couldn’t get hold of anyone there.

So that was useless.

We reluctantly called 999 and asked for the fire department.

The conversation was quite unsettling.

I explained that inside the house a light was flashing very fast and constantly. It had ­probably been flashing like that all night. It was only by chance we had noticed it.

The woman on the other end of the line told me that unless the house was on fire, it wasn’t their problem.

We were amazed.

I mentioned that it could well be their problem if the house went up in flames.

I insisted it was clearly an electrical fault and asked them to come and check it out, but she again repeated: “If the house isn’t on fire, we can’t do anything about it.”

She told me to phone Western Power.

So I did, and they said if they couldn’t get into the house, and if the mains power switch was inside, there would be nothing they could do.

They suggested I call the police.

Imagine, if by now, the house had set alight.

In the end I realised that, somehow, we had the owner’s telephone number.

By this time it was 1.45 in the morning.

I sent a text message to the owner and was amazed to get a reply at such a late hour.

They thanked us for our ­vigilance and agreed to call Western Power to give them the key code so an engineer could get in.

Forty five minutes later an engineer arrived, got in and switched off the faulty lamp, which had obviously been left on.

He agreed it could have ­easily sparked and then, ­probably, a fire could have started.

With all the houses attached to each other in a narrow street, it wouldn’t take a rocket ­scientist to calculate the immense amount of damage a house fire in our street would have caused.

We were grateful to Western Power for their speed in responding.

This brings me back to the fire department.

It is happy to send a fire engine for a seagull stuck on a roof or a cat up a tree, but a potential fire risk is of no importance.

I think it needs to have a ­serious chat with itself and change its attitude and its fire response policy pretty damned quickly.

It is another example of cost-cutting and stupidity.

In this case, prevention is ­better than cure.

If it had checked the house out, secured the situation and prevented any risk of fire, it wouldn’t have to risk sending in firefighters if the house had actually caught fire.

S Gilmore

Crowthers Hill, Dartmouth