A FIRE tore through the roof of a house after spreading from a nearby wood pile.

Firefighters were called to the blaze in Little Wittenham, near Abingdon, at 6.22pm yesterday.

Crews from Wantage and Abingdon and two fire engines from Didcot arrived to find a blaze in the roof space of the two-storey house.

Two crew members wearing breathing apparatus then used hose reel jets to contain and extinguish the fire inside and outside the house.

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The occupants were not in the building at the time, but the house's smoke alarm had activated and alerted the estate manager, who dialled 999.

The fire left a sizeable hole in the roof, with the incident now being handled by the estate manager.

It is not being treated as suspicious, with the cause of the fire thought to be accidental.

Incident commander, watch manager Steve Wright from Didcot Fire Station, said: "This incident highlights the importance of having a working Smoke Detector in your property and also an awareness on hearing an Alarm and investigating the source.”