A WOOD Burner caused a house fire in Witney yesterday after wood stored next to it caught fire.

A neighbour who heard the smoke alarm at the empty Crawley Road property called the fire service at around 4pm.

Two fire crews from Witney and one from Rewley Road in Oxford, were immediately sent to the scene.

Firefighters were faced with a developing fire in the living room and smoke from the ground floor to upper floors.

Firefighters in breathing apparatus used high pressure hose reels and ventilation fans to search the premises and extinguish the flames and clear the smoke.

The fire is believed to have been started by a wood burner transferring heat to the wood that had been stored too close to the wood burning stove.

Incident Commander Crew Manager Glen Lee of Witney Fire Station said: “Solid fuel fire safety tips can be found on our 365 alive website and these will help you to enjoy using wood burning stoves and open fires within the home, at the coldest time of the year.

"I would specifically remind the public not to store wood of place any combustible materials next to wood burners, on this occasion the occupiers of the house had working smoke alarms that alerted a neighbour and enabled then to call us so we could intervene and resolve the incident.”