A kitchen blaze tackled by firefighters in Colchester this morning prompted a fresh warning over the dangers of being “blasé” when cooking meals.

The fire broke out in a ground-floor flat in Stonecrop at around 6.45am today. It was put out shortly after 7am and no injuries were reported.

Neil Fenwick, divisional officer at Essex County and Fire Rescue Service, said more fires start in the kitchen than in any other room and warned cooking is the most common cause of fires in the home.

Last year, some 56% of Essex house fires broke out in the kitchen and cooking was responsible for five fires a week.

Mr Fenwick said: “We know that cooking is an everyday activity but it is still not something people should be blasé about and requires your full attention.

“Just a moment’s distraction is all it takes for a harmless spot of cooking to turn into a potentially devastating fire.

“We know how easy it is to become distracted in the kitchen, busy family lives, phones, tablets, computers and television combine to make people lose their focus in the kitchen and that is when potentially deadly fires can start.

“Make sure that you do not let distraction turn you into the killer in your kitchen.”