A man desperately tried to save his belongings from a blazing trailer after an arson attack today.

The storage trailer, parked in Heath Hill Avenue, Bevendean, Brighton, was broken into and set on fire at about 1.15am.

Owner Barry Williams, 57, was watching television at the home of his girlfriend Christine Donovan, 50, in Walmer Road when he saw a car driving away slowly.

He said: "I decided to let my girlfriend's dog out and I saw this white Volvo or Mondeo estate driving down Heath Hill Avenue at about 15mph.

"Then it drove back again towards the trailer, which I thought was really suspicious.

"After that I saw these huge flames from the trailer.

"They were blazing up about four or five feet above the roof. It was so fast and intense."

Mr Williams called the fire brigade and crews from Preston Circus and Hove arrived within five minutes.

He alerted the occupants of homes opposite the trailer to move their cars away from the blaze.

He said: "This used to be a place where the kids would torch cars about three years ago, but they don't any more.

"I thought it would be safe to leave the trailer here because it is fairly secluded."

Mr Williams ran a junk shop in Gloucester Road, in the North Laine area of Brighton for 35 years until he went bankrupt last year.

He used the trailer to store furniture belonging to himself and Mrs Donovan.

After the blaze was brought under control just before 2am Mr Williams spent four hours trying to salvage his belongings from the trailer.

These included a fridge, a television, a sunbed, carpets, china and pictures.

He believes the trailer could be worth up to £8,000 and the contents could be worth up to £15,000.

A spokesman for the Preston Circus fire crew which fought the blaze said: "Some kind of accelerant had been used because the fire took on very quickly.

"The owner, who said he was an ex-market trader, tried to salvage bits from the trailer.

"We had to cut part of the trailer open to pull out the things and damp them down.

"Half the trailer was destroyed."