A squirrel burned down my house, claims man

A funeral car travelling to a burial in Romford was forced to make a bizarre U-turn recently when one of the passengers realised his house was on fire.

To make matters even stranger, the cause of the blaze was later identified as a squirrel chewing through cables.

Alby Tebbutt was in the final car of a procession heading to a funeral when he received a call informing him his garage was burning, and the fire went on to cause £20,000 worth of damage.

"I said to the driver: 'My house is on fire. Go left here.' The driver said: 'I can't do that, I'm in a funeral', and I told him: 'Never mind that, turn left now,'" Mr Tebbutt is quoted as saying by the Metro.

The driver eventually followed his instruction and dropped him to his house, but he arrived only to see it burning down and the blame attributed to a squirrel with a chewing habit.