A pensioner has died after a devastating fire ripped through his Wolverhampton home.

Shocked neighbours today told how the window of the man’s home exploded with the force of the flames, which sent smoke billowing next door.

The victim, in his eighties, would be seen most days cycling into Wednesfield to get a newspaper.

Part of the village’s tree-lined Woden Avenue, where he lived, was blocked for four-and-a-half hours following the blaze, at around 7pm yesterday.

Today, the charred shell of his three-bedroomed end-terraced home was being boarded up.

Residents in the quiet street told of the dramatic scenes as firefighters, paramedics and police officers raced to the burning house.

One neighbour, who asked not to be named, said: “At first we thought he had started a fire in his garden to burn rubbish or something like that because there was smoke, but then suddenly a window smashed and you could see the flames.

“A few of the people living in the street called the fire service and suddenly the whole street was full with fire engines, paramedics and police.

“There was even smoke billowing into the next door neighbour’s house. We have been here 40 years and nothing has ever happened in the street so this is a shock.”

The man is believed to have lived alone in the road for around 20 years and was named locally today as “Roy” or “Mr Ask”.

“He kept himself to himself,” said one neighbour. “Nobody really knew him at all but you would see him most days going to pick up the newspaper on his bicycle.”

Fire Service spokesman Mike Fox said initial investigations showed the house was not fitted with smoke alarms. The fire is not being treated as suspicious.