Fiery cliffhanger in Texas

The owners torched the house after the land around it eroded away. Photo / AP

A luxury mansion left hanging off a lakeside cliff in Texas has gone down in a blaze of glory.

It made headlines this week as it dangled 23m over Lake Whitney, southwest of Dallas.

The house's owners, who used it as a second home, abandoned the US$700,000 ($807,000) property two weeks ago. The home's insurance policy does not cover earth removal.

Yesterday the owners purposely had the huge home burned down after engineers said it was the safest way to get rid of the hazard.

Owner Rob Webb said he had spent his retirement savings on the house, which was built in 2007.

The land started to give way around the house in February, and since then about 50m of land that separated it from the water's edge had eroded.