A YEAR AGO, Chepstow businessman Marcus Ostler was in intensive care in the burns unit of Swansea's Morriston Hospital.

An explosion of propane gas bottles in his garage left him with severe, 20 per cent burns.

The blaze was fought by firefighters in Red and Green Goddesses during last year's fire strike. They took two hours to put it out.

The past year has been one of struggle for Mr Ostler, 36, of Shirenewton, and his family.

The shop owner spent three weeks in intensive care before beginning a painstaking recovery as his burns were treated and healed.

He is permanently scarred on his hands, back and left arm and has damaged lungs from smoke inhalation.

The time he spent unable to work has severely hit the self-employed man, wife Karen and his three children Sam, aged 14, Marnie, aged five, and Madison, aged two.

And two weeks ago, just as the anniversary of the accident was approaching, a road crash left him wondering if this was an unlucky time of year for him. Mr Ostler suffered broken ribs after being involved in the collision on St Bride's Road, outside Magor.

Mr Ostler, who runs the Londis grocery shop in Magor, will not be back to work until next month because of his injuries.

He said: "My friends are telling me to stay at home for the month to be safe."

The fire at Mr Ostler's garage on November 24 last year was caused by a faulty gas hose connector in his garage.

He said: "When the first gas bottle exploded I jumped over the flames to get to the fire extinguisher at the back of the garage - I wasn't thinking straight at the time - but the speed at which the fire escalated meant I was immediately trapped.

"The rest of the gas bottles exploded in turn and neighbours reported that the flames were 200 ft high.

"Inside the garage it was like a furnace, hot enough to melt my hair."

Mr Ostler says he is not the kind of person to panic but he remembers thinking he would not escape.

"I thought of running through the flames but even while I was 20 feet away my eye lashes were curling and my lungs were burning, there was thick black soot everywhere.

"Whilst crouching down behind an old house radiator to shelter from the heat I could hear the explosions and the roar of the flames - all I could think was 'I'm cooking, I'm not going to get out of here alive'."

Mr Ostler escaped by hauling himself eight foot up to a window which he smashed to crawl to safety.

Mr Ostler returned home just in time for Christmas last year and has put his life back together since the fire, saying he feels lucky to be alive.

He said: "I'm a fast healer luckily but I'm going to try and stay out of trouble from now till Christmas."

His wife Karen said: "After the fire he was not back at work until the end of January and now he is off again. It's annoying when you are self-employed. We have had a lot of support from family and friends but Mark is now susceptible to things like asthma and pneumonia because of his damaged lungs."