LOCALS have blamed a ghost for starting a fire which ripped through Britain’s “most haunted house”.
Paranormal activity at the terraced property in Ammanford, south west Wales, has already forced the owners to flee in terror.
And locals say a mystery blaze in the upstairs floor and roof last weekend could be the work of a ghost.
The Sun visited the town centre building to investigate the claims that it was haunted.
A fire engine and police car were parked up outside the entrance and the smell of smoke was still hanging in the air.
Charred wreckage from the inferno was also strewn along College Street.
Local resident Gwyn, 52, said she has known about the ghost “for years and years”.
The gran told The Sun: “It’s been known as the haunted house since the 70s.
“The people living there most recently got so scared that they moved out and never came back.
“No one’s been brave enough to live there since. Then on Saturday, while it was still unoccupied, it caught fire.
“Thank goodness no one was living there because it was a bad fire.
“The cause is a mystery but the ghost, or ghosts, have decided to do the place in because no one wants to live there.”
Gwyn also thinks the ghost may have “taken its revenge” over the owners’ decision to chronicle the house’s haunted history on YouTube.
“Perhaps the ghost takes a dim view of its behaviour being on YouTube,” she said. “If you ask me it’s all very weird.”
The property hit headlines a few years ago when its former owners claimed it was plagued by mysterious screams and other unexplained sounds.
Alan and Christine Tait fled to a new life in a camper van vowing never to return to their home.
The manageress of a nearby cafe, who did not want to be identified, said: “We know the story of the Taits who were living there for around 11 years or so.
“They had an awful time and decided in the end that the place was just too scary to stay and moved out.
“The place has been reputed to have been haunted since the 1970s although no one is quite sure what spirits might have taken up residence.
“Personally, I think it’s a figment of their imagination, but when you listen to the ghostly recording on YouTube, I have to admit it does sound very frightening.”
Another local, a policeman who asked not to be named, confirmed that the Taits used to live there.
He said that after they moved out the only people who dared go inside were teenagers “messing about” inside.
The officer said: “I’ve had to spend quite some time at the property when kids have been messing about there but I can’t say that I found the place spooky.
The cause is a mystery but the ghost, or ghosts, have decided to do the place in because no one wants to live there.
Local Gwyn
“The top floor caught fire at the weekend and the fire brigade attended and put the fire out.
“The cause of the blaze is unexplained at the moment but the fire service is investigating.
“Main thing though is that no one was hurt in the incident.”
A Jehovah’s Witnesses couple walking by the scene this week took one look at the wreckage.
They said: “People should put their faith in the Bible then they wouldn’t get carried away with such ideas.
“We know God can move in mysterious ways, but nothing like this.”
The Taits installed microphones around the house to capture the ghostly sounds of women and children screaming, heavy knocking and men talking in a foreign language.
MID and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service said that the cause of the fire was not yet known.
“At 8.02am on Saturday, August 31, Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service crews from Ammanford, Amman Valley, Tumble, Pontardawe and Morriston Fire Stations were called to an incident on College Street in Ammanford,” the spokesperson said.
“Crews responded to a fire within a residential property above a commercial property.
“The building’s first floor and roof space were well alight on crews’ arrival, with the fire spreading to neighbouring properties.
“Crews utilised 11 breathing apparatus sets, two hose reel jets, two thermal imaging cameras, one 13.5 metre ladder, one seven metre ladder, one turntable appliance used as a water tower and one safety jet to extinguish the fire.
“Crews left the scene at 11.38am, with some crews reattending later that day to monitor and dampen down remaining hotspots.
“This incident required a multi-agency response with Dyfed-Powys Police and the Local Authority also in attendance.
“The cause of the fire is not yet known.”
“It was like a flushing noise that I heard first,” Christine said.
“I told Alan about it and that I couldn’t figure out where it was coming from.
“He left his phone in the bathroom with the recorder on to try to pick up the source of the noise and then we could hear a machine running.
“We started to record all over the house and we picked up the sounds of chains, a motorbike starting and people screaming.”
The Taits, now both in their mid-60s, said the noises appeared to be coming from underneath the basement that sits below the kitchen.
In desperation they even called the police out to try and find the source of the noise.
Alan also dug two 1.5 metre channels into the walls and put recording equipment inside.
The chilling noises amounted to hundreds of hours of recordings.
