A COUPLE had to evacuate their new home in Benwick last night after a passer by told them their roof was on fire.

The woman was watching television when a passer by alerted her, and she and her partner quickly escaped and called 999.

Their neighbour, Clara Gill, who now has smoke damage to her loft, said that they had only moved in about five to six weeks ago.

“I went upstairs to look out of a window because I thought there had been an accident, but I saw smoke bellowing out,” Clara said, “There was lots of commotion, loads of ladders and lots of people running about.

“I was terrified about my house, I picked up my baby, left the house, and we went next door.”

A fire crew from Ramsey, one from Chatteris, one from March, and a turntable ladder from Doddington were called to the house on Doddington Road, at 5.20pm and found the roof well alight.

They used a turntable ladder, two hose reels and a covering jet to extinguish the fire that damaged the loft space and roof of the home, believed to have started in the flue of a log burner.

Dale Thacker, Ramsey Fire Station Crew Manager said: “Now that the weather is getting colder, please be sure you get all chimneys swept and flues inspected before they are used.”