Firefighters are urging homeowners to have their chimneys serviced after a wood burner almost spread throughout a house.

Two engines from Colchester were called to a property in Heath Road on Saturday night (January 23), after a fire inside the wood burner had grown out of control.

Four people inside the house fled for their safety.

Firefighters had managed to extinguish the fire within half an hour and prevented the fire from spreading.

Peter Donovan, watch manager at Colchester Fire Station, said: "Our crews did a really professional job of extinguishing this fire quickly before it spread.

"However, these incidents are particularly common at this time of year when people are using chimneys and wood burners and often haven't had them serviced.

"We believe this incident was caused due to a faulty door seal in the wood burner, which allowed a flow of air in to accelerate the fire.

"This could have been avoided if the wood burner was serviced before use - so please, if you're planning on using your chimney or wood burner, don't take the risk - get them serviced first."

No-one was harmed during the incident.