UPDATE, 20 August: Five teenagers have since been charged with arson with recklessness as to whether life was endangered. Full story here.
Four teenagers have been arrested after the fire that gutted Rheola House, with South Wales Police saying the blaze at the Grade II* listed manor was set deliberately.
Emergency services were called to the house, in the Neath Valley between Glynneath and Resolven, at around 4.50pm on Tuesday.
By evening the fire had destroyed the 200-year-old Regency manor, credited to John Nash, the architect who gave Buckingham Palace its famous façade, with crews damping down the gutted shell into Wednesday morning.
South Wales Police said a 17-year-old boy from Barry in the Vale of Glamorgan, a 19-year-old man from Gendros in Swansea, and an 18-year-old man from Waunarlwydd in Swansea have all been arrested on suspicion of arson.
An 18-year-old man from Cadoxton in Neath Port Talbot has been arrested on suspicion of arson and possession of a knife blade in a public place.
All four are in police custody.
A landmark lost hours before the arrests
The fire tore through a building that had stood in the valley since the Regency era, built between 1812 and 1818 and recorded by Cadw as almost certainly the work of Nash.
Developers Brook Group had lodged proposals in 2024 for a 295-bed boutique hotel, spa and leisure complex across the estate, with the restored house at its heart.
Announcing the arrests, the force pointed to a joint warning it issued with Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service last year on the dangers of deliberately set fires.
That warning has hung over a punishing month for the fire service, whose crews only left the six-day Rhandirmwyn wildfire on Tuesday, hours before Rheola House burned.
The final crew also left the Morfa Bychan wildfire at Pendine at 7.50 on Wednesday morning after almost 60 hours. No cause has been given for either wildfire.
The investigation continues.
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