A young family praised the actions of a quick-thinking window cleaner who spotted a workshop blaze before it could spread to their Sidbury house on Saturday.

Jacob Voss, Limanda Hobson and 10-month old Mylah were away from their Furzehill house when the fire started at around 2pm, but their window cleaner was working at the time.

He called the fire brigade, who contained the flames before they could spread from the workshop to the main house or any neighbouring buildings.

Electrician Jacob said: “We came racing back when we heard – if we didn’t have a window cleaner I don’t know what would’ve happened.

“We got back as the firemen arrived, and they put it out amazingly quickly.”

He added: “If it had come in the house we would’ve been in big trouble.”

Lois Sheppard, a pregnant hairdresser who lives next door, said it wasn’t what she was expecting – her due date was Monday.

“We were out for a walk but someone said there were fire engines at the bottom of the road,” she said.

“The fire crews had it under control by the time I saw it.”

Station manager and watch commander Rob Crisp said that when firefighters arrived smoke was billowing through the roof.

The crew had to break the door down to gain access.

“It was very, very heavily smoke logged,” said commander Crisp.

He added smoke was so bad firefighters, who donned breathing apparatus, couldn’t see where they were going at first.

They quickly used a pair of hose reel jets to douse flames, ventilate the area, cut away hot spots and clean up.

Mr Crisp said the exact cause of the fire was not yet known but it was believed to have started on a bench in the workshop and could have involved oily rags and a spark from an electrical appliance.