FIREFIGHTERS tackled an early morning chimney blaze in Newton Poppleford after residents woke to find their living room filled with smoke.

FIREFIGHTERS tackled an early morning chimney blaze in Newton Poppleford after residents woke to find their living room filled with smoke.

A crew from Sidmouth raced to Southerton at around 5.30am on Wednesday after smoke alarms alerted householders to the blaze, sparked by a wood burning stove in their lounge.

Flames set alight wooden beams at the property.

Firefighters donned breathing apparatus and braved heavy smoke before locating the fire in the chimney breast.

The crew cut away the breast and doused flames.

“The fire had got through into the chimney breast and set fire to one or two wooden beams,” Watch Commander Rob Crisp told the Herald, We had to put it out, cut part of the chimney breast away and remove beams.

“It was fairly unusual as you don’t usually get a room so heavily smoke-logged. We didn’t know what the cause was at the time.

“It was all confined to the chimney breast. Luckily smoke alarms went off.

“The residents were obviously a little concerned to begin with but once we found out what the problem was we could deal with it.

Mr Crisp has issued a general warning to residents over wood burning stoves as temperatures plummet.

“Make sure that if you have a wood burning stove make sure it is fitted properly by competent people and fire retardant materials are used,” he said.