East Bergholt: Crews tackle bungalow fire

FIREFIGHTERS were called in to action to tackle a roof fire in a bungalow.

The drama unfolded around 1.30pm in Flatford Road, East Bergholt.

Appliances from Manningtree, Hadleigh, Colchester and Ipswich were initially sent to the scene.

When they arrived they discovered that overhead power lines had also been affected by the fire.

They asked for assistance and a crew from Ipswich and another from Woodbridge were sent to the scene to help.

Engineers from UK Power Networks also attended to make the area safe.

The bungalow was evacuated and there are no reports of any injuries.

Firefighters brought the blaze under control by 4.40pm.

Crews then started stripping the roof externally and exposing the internal roof joints to find any hotspots that might cause further damage.

Firefighters from Ipswicn and Sudbury were then sent to the scene to relieve two other crews.

By 5.30pm firefighters had completely removed the roof tiles and efforts were being focused to remove property from the bungalow.

A spokesman for UK Power Networks said: “UK Power Networks engineers were alerted this afternoon to a fire at a property on Flatford Road, East Bergholt.

“In order to make the area safe for the fire service, the electricity supply to the property was interrupted by our engineers on site at 3.57pm.

“This will remain the case until specialist investigators can assure the fire service and our engineers that it is safe to switch on the supply.”