A NIGHTMARE came true for Cheltenham businessman Geoff Cook when a suspected arson attack destroyed his £50,000 collection of rare books.
The 62-year-old is still reeling in the aftermath of the fire.
Neighbours were evacuated from their homes as smoke and seven-foot flames poured from the storage building.
Firefighters tackled the blaze at his shop in Gloucester and the area remained cordoned off over the weekend while police investigated.
A 30-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of arson in connection with the fire which decimated a storage room with more than 6,000 books in it.
Mr Cook, who lives in Cheltenham, said he was still in shock over the loss. Just last August he was massively relieved when the very same building narrowly avoided being damaged by a suspected arson attack in the yard.
But he has now had to shut down the book business he spent a decade building from scratch, and expects to lay off a member of staff.
The blaze began shortly before 1am on Saturday and quickly spread to the back of his business in Gloucester.
Mr Cook said: "I'll probably wake up screaming tomorrow.
"It has been completely blown out of the sky and I'm gutted.
"There were mostly non-fiction books ranging from £10 to £600 in there, everything you could like of from A to Z and I spent years collecting them."
Fortunately the fire did not touch the main part of his shop and his framing business was open as usual on Saturday.
He said: "Hopefully we will keep going as no one else is going to offer me a job at my age."
Originally from Norfolk, Geoff went into the RAF and then, aged just 21, was dropped of in Gloucester with a £1 note in his hand.
A love of art led him to set up his framing firm in 1987 and he built it up from nothing into a thriving business.
Southgate Street neighbour Mark Sooley was woken by the fire and rang 999.
He said: "Geoff really doesn't deserve this.
"He is such a nice man and I feel totally gutted for him."
Police have appealed for witnesses to come forward.
DS Sergeant Catherine James said: "We would like to hear from anyone in the area at the time who saw what happened or from anyone who has any further information about the incident.
"We are aware that there have been fires in this area before but at the moment we are not connecting this incident to any other cases and our enquiries continue."
The arrested man has been released on bail.
Anyone with information should call 101, quoting incident number 27 of July 23 or contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555111 or through www.crime stoppers-uk.org.
