A GREENOCK dad told how he woke up to find his home had been set alight by firebugs.

Kevin Best was asleep on the sofa in his ground floor flat in Bow Road just before 5am on Wednesday morning when he woke up to find his kitchen on fire.

Gasping for breath and covered in black soot, Kevin managed to extinguish the fire which had already destroyed his blinds and caused extensive damage to the sink area.

The 26-year-old, who was recovering from his ordeal today, spoke of his relief that his two young children were not staying at the property when the fire was started.

He said: “If the fire had happened a day later then my two children would have been here, which doesn’t bear thinking about.

“I had fallen asleep on the couch but I was woken by my smoke alarm.

“I then saw an orange light and flames leaping up from my kitchen.

“I threw kettles of cold water over the fire and it went out.

“I do feel lucky to be alive as if I hadn’t come round then I could have died.” Kevin’s aunt, who lives next door, said she was absolutely terrified when he ran into her home in a panic.

She said: “He ran into my house gasping for breath and I said ‘oh my god’.

“He was covered in black soot so I threw a wet towel at him – it was terrifying.” Police say they are treating the incident as wilful fire-raising and are now appealing for witnesses.

David Wagstaff, of Greenock CID, said: “It appears that somebody has reached into an open window and set fire to a blind.” The house fire was one of a spate of incidents in the area overnight into Wednesday.

A car was deliberately set on fire in Fancy Farm Road, with firefighters from Gourock racing to the scene after a black Ford Fiesta was set alight at about 4.40am.

They managed to quickly bring the fire under control but the wing mirror and the dashboard were badly damaged.

At around the same time, four bins were also set on fire in nearby Curlew Crescent.

One of the shocked residents, who asked not to be named, says her son was leaving for work when he spotted their wheelie bin on fire at about 5am that morning.

She said: “It’s infuriating as I actually don’t know how long it will take to get another bin.” Fellow Curlew Crescent residents Margaret, 67, and James Montague, 68, discovered that their three bins — a food bin, brown garden waste bin and the blue bin for plastics and paper — had been destroyed in the fire, which also damaged the wall of their garden.

Speaking to the Tele, Margaret said: “I’m really shaken as nothing like this has ever happened before in this area.

“I’m surprised that the bin men and the postman didn’t alert us to it this morning.” James said: “It’s lucky that the fire didn’t spread to the hedge — it could have been a lot worse.” Anyone with information about any of the incidents is asked to phone Greenock Police on 101.