THE owner of a luxury home badly damaged in a suspected arson attack fears the sale of the house may fall through following the blaze.

Austin Clews, 42, was speaking after 27 rooms at Lords Hall Farm, at the top of Duckshaw Road, Darwen, were damaged in the fire.

Firefighters spent several hours tackling the blaze, which was possibly started by a burglar.

They had to use water for an indoor swimming pool to extinguish the flames due to difficulties caused by its remote location.

Mr Clews is general manager of Clews Competition Motorcycles, which used to be based in Shadsworth before the firm moved to Bolton.

He lives at the house with his wife Amanda, 41, as well as father-in-law and mother-in-law, John and Joan King.

Mr Clews said a deal had been agreed to sell the house for £895,000 about six weeks ago but he was now waiting to find out the full extent of the fire.

He said: "We are not entirely sure what happened but someone has broken into the house and caused a fire somewhere.

"The upstairs level was quite badly damaged.

"Everyone is in shock at what has happened and we have lost everything that was upstairs.

"The house has been on the market for some time and we had agreed to sell at the asking price through the estate agents. We do not know why this has happened and we have not discussed the consequences but it is a concern that the sale will not go through."

Police and fire bosses launched an investigation following the blaze which started at about 5.35pm on Friday.

Firefighters initially suspected someone may have been trapped inside the property and searched the house.

However, nobody was in the house at the time.

Det Sgt Ian Geogarty, of Darwen CID, said officers were keeping an open mind about the cause of the fire, but added: "It's clearly an arson investigation.

"Every room was damaged by smoke or by fire.

"It's clearly going to be some sort of petrol or paraffin they have used."

Anyone who may have seen anything suspicious in the Duckshaw Road or Bury Fold Lane area between 4pm and 6pm should contact DS Geogarty on 01254 353842.