A carpenter who painstakingly converted a double decker bus into a unique holiday home which featured on Channel 4‘s George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces has revealed how a famous multi-millionaire influencer family then burnt it down.
Adam Collier-Woods, 53, spent £15,000 on turning the green bus into a hugely popular luxury home for rent.
But he was left distraught when he rented it to famous YouTube stars The Wilson Family and it burned down after the family left a smouldering portable barbeque underneath it.
The barbeque coals had not gone out properly and set fire to wooden decking next to the bus – which soon spread to the front of the vehicle causing it to erupt in flames and leaving it a charred wreck.
The Wilson Family – who recently filmed themselves showing off their own new mansion and swimming pool to their followers on social media – had hired The Big Green Bus for two days in April 2022.
Adam Collier-Woods, 53, spent £15,000 on turning the green bus into a hugely popular luxury home for rent – but it was left a burnt out shell after the fire erupted
Mr Collier-Woods hired a fire forensics expert who staged a CSI-style probe into what caused the blaze and found it was caused by portable barbeque coals (pictured, the wreckage caused by the blaze)
It was set in a secluded private woodland near Lewes, East Sussex, where Mr Collier-Woods had converted the 1982 West Midlands Metrobus into a quirky holiday home in 2013.
It had been featured in an episode of George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces the following year and had since proved wildly popular.
Mr Collier-Woods told MailOnline: ‘That bus was a source of pride and it was a real money-spinner and booked out all through the year because it was such a unique place to stay.’
Describing the moment he first saw the bus was on fire, Mr Collier-Woods said he initially feared the Wilsons were trapped inside.
He said: ‘I thought they could be in the bus and I was fully prepared to run in and save them.
‘I rang the mother and she picked up and said they had gone back home momentarily to fetch a friend of one of the kids.
‘I told them what had happened and not to come back. They were angry because their belongings were still inside.
‘Smoke was billowing into the air and the flames were getting higher and higher. It took three fire engines to bring it under control.’
Mr Collier Woods with George Clarke’s on Amazing Spaces which revisited the trauma of the blaze in Lewes, East Sussex
Mr Collier-Woods said he initially feared the Wilsons were trapped inside the fire and it took three fire engines to put the blaze out
The bus was was set in a secluded private woodland near Lewes, East Sussex, where Mr Collier-Woods had converted the 1982 West Midlands Metrobus into a quirky holiday home in 2013. Left, the luxury holiday home before the blaze and right, the carnage caused by the fire
The Wilson Family (pictured) – who recently filmed themselves showing off their own new mansion and swimming pool to their followers on social media – had hired The Big Green Bus for two days in April 2022
He explained: ‘They’d booked for two nights in April 2022. They’d asked if they could stay for free and that they’d promote the bus on their social media but I don’t do that sort of thing so they paid the full fee.
‘I’d told them not to use anything other than the fire pit that was available if they were cooking outside but they’d brought a portable barbeque and decided to use that.
‘They’d stashed the barbeque under the decking
‘It was a complete accident, I know that, and I don’t think they had any idea that the fire had taken hold when they’d left the site.’
A video of the inferno and the subsequent heartbreak were shown in a new episode of the programme shown last month when Clarke revisited Mr Collier-Woods to see a log cabin-style home he has built in its place made from shipping containers.
Mr Collier-Woods has never named the Wilsons publicly until now – and said he was doing so now because he feels they have never properly apologised.
He explained that he suffers from Ménière’s disease, an inner ear condition that causes extreme fatigue which makes it hard to hold down a job – so the rental income from the bus had been his only source of income.
He said: ‘The Wilsons have a lot of money and influence and all they had to do what put their hands up and say sorry – but I’ve had nothing in the way of apology from them.
‘They have now paid out – through their loss adjustor.’
Their family’s insurers initially denied responsibility and refused to pay compensation to Mr Collier-Woods.
Mr Collier-Woods has never named the Wilsons publicly until now – and said he was doing so now because he feels they have never properly apologised
Mr Collier-Woods spent a lot of time and money transforming the bus into a luxury holiday let
After the bus featured in an episode of George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces it had proved wildly popular with holidaymakers (pictured, the ground floor lounge area in the bus)
Mr Collier-Woods has since rebuilt a luxury holiday home on the woodland site
But he hired a fire forensics expert who staged a CSI-style probe into what caused the blaze and found it was not caused by an electrical fault as first thought but by the portable barbeque coals.
A trawl through data from his CCTV cameras also indicated that the fire started when the Wilsons were in residence.
The case rumbled on until May this year when the family settled out of court to the tune of £55,000 via their loss adjustor.
Mr Collier-Woods continued: ‘I wanted to know how the fire started so I sought help from a fire forensic specialist who was able to show that although the fire started around the driver’s seat area it wasn’t an electrical fault because the wires in the fuse box had long since had any power.
‘The expert was able to prove that the scorch marks were consistent with a disposable barbeque. On closer inspection we found the remains of one bought from Co-Op in the wreckage.
‘I also looked at the CCTV logs and could see that the Wilsons left the car park just before the fire started and a time when nobody else was there.’
Adam has now replaced the bus with a holiday cabin he has constructed from two twenty feet by eight shipping containers stacked on top of each other.
He has written a book called ‘Playing It By Ear’ about how he battled through poor health to turn the containers into a luxury holiday home – complete with stained glass fanlights, a retro bathroom with powder-blue sink and toilet and a modern looking kitchen made from copper-pipe handles.
The Wilson Family came to prominence when Nigel and Cherina Wilson recorded Tiana opening Christmas presents for her relatives and posted the video on YouTube.
Tiana’s hilarious reactions saw her become a sensation almost overnight and her parents set up a YouTube channel and began uploading videos of their daughter unboxing everything from stuffed toys to board games and playsets.
Tiana, now 16, soon made a fortune from similar videos reviewing toys and now boasts more than 11-million subscribers on YouTube.
They tune in to watch her present make-up tutorials. The Wilson Family had their own YouTube Channel but now upload videos under Tiana2, which has almost 6 million subscribers.
MailOnline has contacted the Wilson family for comment.