LOCALS were forced to step in to save a historic abbey from an arson attack in spite of a fire station being just half a mile away.
The blaze broke out after rubbish outside Malmesbury Abbey, in Wiltshire, was torched on Friday, June 3. Firefighters rushed to the scene from a station in Chippenham 10 miles away because the local, on-call fire station was unable to crew an appliance due to a lack of retained firefighters.