A pair of "upset" ghosts are being blamed for a restaurant fire a couple of days after paranormal investigators aired a TV show about them.
Rob Braddick, who owns The Pier House, in Westward Ho!, Devon, was horrified to find a tumble dryer had caught fire and caused £25,000 worth of damage on April 3.
And intriguingly, the machine is next door to his 'haunted house', which was investigated by ghost hunters for TV show Help! My House is Haunted and aired two days earlier.
During the programme, ghost hunters claim spirits Henry and Elizabeth haunt the 19th-century building and communicate with them by rolling marbles.
When paranormal sceptic Rob posted about the fire, locals blamed the ghosts by claiming they must have been "upset" that he allowed the team to film inside the home and expose them on TV.
Startling images show a room inside the restaurant black with soot and the two tumble dryers burned beyond repair.
Rob's tongue-in-cheek post said: "FOR SALE. Slightly used tumble dryer - recently serviced by Elizabeth and Henry."
One reply read: "You've obviously upset them by letting those crazy people try to get them to communicate."
Another said: "They’ve given up the ghost. Time to go back to the basement."
Rob bought the former B&B six years ago and he says it's rumoured to be haunted so when he was approached by TV producers to film there he invited them in.
He says they filmed inside the cliff-edge property last March for around a week where they claimed to contact two spirits called Henry and Elizabeth, the daughter of the house's builder.
The fire at The Pier House was contained downstairs by fire doors but replacing two tumble dryers, a washing machine, multiple melted items and removing black soot is said to cost around £25,000.
The restaurant was closed but reopened the next day with Rob unconvinced the ghosts were at fault for the freak blaze.
Rob, from Westward Ho!, said: "It's a completely bizarre coincidence that this programme is aired on Friday night and on Monday I've got the first fire we've ever had.
"It's not convinced me to believe in ghosts yet. I need to see something first-hand.
"It [the house] looks like something out of Scooby Doo because it's right on the edge of a cliff. My idea is to refurbish the house into a really nice property.
"The TV people said we should find out if it's haunted once and for all, then we can draw a line under it and decide if it's haunted or not. I'm not really a believer."
