The quick-thinking of a Haddenham homeowner saw her family evacuated to safety after a fault in a light fitting caused fire to break out in the early hours of today.
Firefighters from Sutton, Chatteris and Ely were called to Hill Row shortly before 3am following reports that the first floor of a two-storey house was on fire.
Five children and two adults had safely left the house by the time fire crews arrived.
Station commander Wayne Swales said: “The owner of the property woke up in the middle of the night when she heard something. She discovered a fire on the outside of the property and immediately got everyone out the house and called the fire service.
“Her swift and focused actions meant everyone in the property escaped unharmed and the fire service were able to attend as soon as possible.”
Firefighters took three hours to extinguish the blaze. A specialist MultiStar aerial appliance from Cambridge was used to fight the fire from above.
A spokesman for Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service said: “Water supply was a problem owing to the location of the property, therefore crews set up a system to pump water from an open field drain to supply the hoses and jets.
“The fire was extinguished at about 6am and crews continued to dampen down and search for hotspots.”
Mr Swales said: “The way this property is built meant the fire was compartmentalised. It is thanks to this building design that the fire did not claim the whole property, which could have resulted in a much larger and more serious fire.
“Unfortunately the first floor is badly damaged and the rest of the property has been damaged to some extent.”
A fire investigation concluded that it most likely started on the outside of the house, in an external light fitting.
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