A 23-YEAR-OLD man from Blackwood arrested on suspicion of arson after a blaze at an Ynsyddu garage remains on police bail.

More than £3,000 worth of damage was caused during the attack on the garage, which was around eight metres from a house where a pensioner and her severely disabled daughter were sleeping at the time.

Flames ripped through the garage in Alexandra Road shortly before midnight on September 18 and a police investigation found the fire was caused deliberately.

Patricia Rowlands, 71, and her daughter Lorna, 38, who suffers from multiple sclerosis and requires round-the-clock care, were rescued from their nearby house by neighbours.

Mrs Rowlands’ other daughter, Dawn Jenkins, 50, who lives nearby, spotted the blaze shooting out of the tin sheet sides of the garage as she looked out of her window.

She alerted her mother and sister, who was carried onto her stairlift and out to safety by four neighbours, and called the fire service.

The garage and equipment in it, including a new specialised £800 reclining chair for Miss Rowlands and a workbench and tools which belonged to Mrs Rowlands’ late husband Roy, were destroyed.

He died eight years ago from kidney cancer, aged 64.

Gwent Police are continuing to investigate the incident.