THE owner of a rare vintage car has praised part-time members of Wiltshire Fire Brigade for rescuing it from a garage blaze.

Geoff Carter, of Swan Meadow, Pewsey, was horrified when he woke in the early hours of Friday morning to see flames leaping up from his garage.

Parked inside was a 1948 Sunbeam Talbot 10 Supreme on which he had lavished ten months of dedicated work.

But firefighters managed to push the treasured car out of danger, and although the garage was badly burned, the car suffered only minor damage.

Mr Carter said: "I can't praise the firefighters enough. They were brilliant. They can't have been more than five minutes arriving, yet they must have all been tucked up in bed.

"The paintwork on the car's roof is a little burnt and there are a few drops of plastic on the paintwork but nothing that can't be fixed quite easily."

Mr Carter, who works for Wessex Water, bought the Sunbeam Talbot, one of the first luxury sports cars to be produced after the Second World War, after he sold an Austin A40 Devon which he had rebuilt over three years.

He said: "There was nothing more to be done on it so I sold it and bought the Sunbeam. I was thrilled because I had never seen a Talbot 10 before."

The car is insured for £3,500, but could be worth £5,000 when the renovation is complete.

It is thought an electrical fault in the meter box was responsible for the fire.