A SHOCKED Ipswich family spoke of their devastation at returning home to find firefighters tackling a blaze at their house.Jill Ransome, who has lived at the house in Landseer Road for three years, said: "I am completely devastated that my home has been wrecked by the fire, it's so upsetting.

By Matt Eley

A SHOCKED Ipswich family spoke of their devastation at returning home to find firefighters tackling a blaze at their house.

Jill Ransome, who has lived at the house in Landseer Road for three years, said: "I am completely devastated that my home has been wrecked by the fire, it's so upsetting.

"Thankfully we were not in the time and nobody was hurt."

Flames from the fire at the Landseer Road property threatened to engulf the building but crews from Ipswich were able to contain it.

"There doesn't seem to be an explanation for the fire apart from that it started on the stairs," Miss Ransome added.

She and her family are currently staying with relations in Ipswich.

Three crews, two from Princes Street and another from Colchester Road headquarters, attended the blaze at about 7pm last night. The property suffered a lot of smoke damage and a fire spokesman said today that the cause of the fire is still being investigated.

Other residents from the busy Ipswich road gathered outside their homes to watch the scene outside the house.

Three fire engines, along with police cars, lined the streets as the incident was dealt with. Policeman directed traffic and helped keep the area safe.

Assistant Divisional Officer, Karl Rolfe, of Princes Street fire station, was leading the investigation at the scene last night.

He said: "There is extensive smoke damage on the first floor and also a fair bit of damage on the ground floor.

"The occupants were not in the house at the time so thankfully nobody has been injured.

"We think it started in the stairs area between the first floor and ground floor but it is not clear how it started at this stage."

Mr Rolfe added the house was in the process of being renovated and that investigations were continuing to discover the cause of the incident.

n Crews dealing with the Landseer Road blaze arrived straight from putting out a small fire at Agilent Technologies, Whitehouse Road, Ipswich.

They attended a small fire and phosphine gas leak at about 5.30pm. The fire was extinguished and the leak isolated. A stop time was recorded at 6.15pm.