Armchair fire

A CLEAR-UP operation is underway today after an armchair caught fire in a Suffolk flat.

The blaze at the flat above a butcher's shop in Needham Market is believed to have started when a chair was placed too near to a night storage heater.

Fire crews and paramedics were called to the fire in the High Street at around 3.20pm yesterday.

The woman who lived in the flat and the male occupant at the flat above her both escaped injury but were treated by fire crews and paramedics at the scene for smoke inhalation.

Carl Francis, Assistant Divisional Officer at Suffolk Fire Service said that although the actual fire had been limited to just one square metre of the flat, the rest of the premises had suffered severe heat and smoke damage.

He said: "There was quite substantial damage to the living room where the fire started.

"They (night storage heaters) do get very hot and really nothing should be placed too close to or against them."

Mr Francis said the woman was in another room to where the blaze started before going into the living room and spotting the fire.

She phoned the fire brigade and alerted the man living upstairs and both were able to leave the building.