Two people escaped from a house in Abingdon after a blaze broke out this morning.

The fire started on the ground and first floor of a semi-detached home in Whitelock Road.

Oxfordshire Fire Service station manager Mark Ames said firefighters were alerted at about 6.05am and two crews from Abingdon and one from Rewley Road in Oxford attended the incident.

Mr Ames said: "A man and a woman were woken by up by their smoke alarm and left the home safely.

"This shows the importance of having a working smoke alarm."

Mr Ames said when firefighters arrived there was no sign of a blaze but they then found the fire affecting the ground and first floor.

A resident, who asked not to be named, told the Oxford Mail: "I was one of the people who got out of the house when the smoke alarm went off.

"The fire was next door, at the home of our semi-detached neighbour.

"Hence the reason it took the fire brigade a little longer to locate the source of the fire."

The station manager at Kidlington said a fire investigation was now being conducted by the fire service and Thames Valley Police.

The cause of the blaze is not yet known.