A MAJOR fire has ripped through the £500,000-plus home of Morton chairman and Greenock businessman Douglas Rae.

The Golden Casket chief’s home in Kilmacolm was ruined during a fierce blaze believed to have been caused by an overheated fuse in the electrical box.

The Ton owner and his wife were not at home when flames took hold of the property shortly before 3pm on Friday.

In a cruel irony, Mrs Rae had actually seen the fire engines rushing towards the village as she made her way home, and even moved out of their way to let them past.

Now the couple face up to a year out of their beloved home, which they have spent the last two years renovating since moving there from Greenock.

A devastated Mr Rae told the Tele: “It is in a terrible state. We will be out of it for possibly between eight months and a year to get it back to the condition it was in. We had it absolutely perfect and spent a lot of money getting it like that.

“My wife was driving up the road after being down in Greenock, and she heard a fire engine coming as she got to a roundabout at the top of Clune Brae.

“She went around the roundabout so she could let the fellow past and she said to herself ‘oh some poor person must be in trouble’.

“Then she said ‘I hope it’s not me’ and of course got up and saw the place was smoking and the flames were jumping up out the top of the place. We are very disappointed.” Despite the fire, Ton boardroom boss Mr Rae was still in his usual place at Cappielow the following afternoon as he watched Morton start their competitive season by beating Spartans in a cup tie — and he is determined to get on with restoring his home to its former glory.

He said: “No matter how you feel about it and how disappointed you are, you have to be realistic — the house is as it is and we’ve got to buckle down and get on and bring it back to its former presentation.

“But it’s a long way from that.” It’s believed the fire started in the main fuse box on the ground floor and quickly spread upstairs throughout the plush detached property. Mr Rae says practically everything inside has been destroyed. He said: “There is nothing in the whole place that could be saved.

“If you said to someone ‘I’ll give you all the contents for nothing’ they wouldn’t take them.

“It’s the worst it could have been as far as we were concerned.” All the windows and doors will have to be replaced after they were blown out, while a conservatory at the property has been left mangled. The property is now being fully assessed to find out exactly how much the damage will cost, before a major repair operation gets under way.

But Mr Rae says priceless possessions and family items have been lost forever.

He said: “There are quite a lot of things that are irreplaceable. All the things of intrinsic value were all shattered.” Three fire engines — two from Port Glasgow and one from Paisley — helped tackle the blaze, which was brought under control within about 10 minutes. But firefighters spent around five hours at the scene carrying out investigations afterward.

David Devenay, station manager at Port Glasgow, said: “It was quite a substantial fire.

“It was well developed on the ground floor and the first floor, and additional support was requested. Thankfully the owners were out at the time. We believe it was accidental.

“The firefighters did an excellent job because the conditions were atrocious — it was about 25 degrees outside.

“But they worked very hard to bring it under control very quickly.

“There were working smoke detectors in the property and neighbours heard them.

“It didn’t prevent the fire but gave early warning and helped the neighbours to help prevent further damage.” Local fire chiefs are currently urging people to take advantage of free home safety visits.

Call the Port station on 741222 or Greenock on 722222 to book an appointment.