A QUICK-THINKING resident saved their neighbour after spotting smoke coming from the roof of their Oxfordshire home on Boxing Day.

Firefighters from Wantage and Faringdon were called by the occupant of the house attached to the Childrey property, near Wantage, just before 3pm yesterday to tackle a blaze on the roof of the West Street home.

Due to the severity of the fire, which had spread across all three storeys, additional crews were also called from Didcot, Abingdon, Wallingford and Eynsham fire stations, along with the Aerial Ladder Platform from Oxford.

They brought the fire under control with high pressure hose reels, while other teams worked from ladders at the rear of the house to strip tiles from the roof to stop the flames spreading.

The Red Cross also sent their Incident Response Unit from Slade Park Oxford, to help the occupant who had been inside at the time. 

The Fire Service has not yet revealed any more details about the them or their current condition.

Crews also gained access to the neighbouring property to ensure that the fire was not spreading through the roof and into that house, and used a large fan in order to remove smoke that had come through from next door.

The Incident Commander, Station Manager Guy Dunkley said: “This was a very challenging incident when we first arrived due to the way the building is constructed.

"The roof extends down to the ground floor on the rear elevation of the property, meaning that we actually had fire present on all three storeys of the house on the rear façade.

"Fire crews worked extremely hard in the very inclement weather conditions to not only bring the fire under control without it spreading into the neighbour’s house, but also to utilise salvage techniques to protect the contents of the affected property from firefighting water and the rain.”

An investigation into the cause of the fire is underway, but initial findings suggest the cause was accidental.