A FAMILY had a lucky escape after an electric blanket caught alight in the early hours of the morning.

A fire broke out in a first floor bedroom of a semi-detached house in Stoke-by-Nayland at 2.53am yesterday<19.03>.

It caused an evacuation of their home in The Blundens and left them watching on helplessly as firefighters battled to get the thick, black plumes of smoke billowing from it under control.

A female police officer was treated by paramedics at the scene for smoke inhalation, but did not require hospital treatment. At one point fire crews were pulled out of the building and windows were smashed to ventilate the property for their safety before they went back in with breathing masks.

The upstairs of the two-storey house was left badly smoke damaged but the fire itself was contained to just one bedroom following the work of firefighters.

One of the occupiers, who has small children, confirmed the fire started from an electric blanket but said she had no other comment to make.

Feral Rolf, a group manager at Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service, said: “We were called to smoke in a building.

“There was quite a lot of smoke issuing from the house so we sent for another fire engine from Colchester and overall we used four breathing apparatus, a thermal imaging camera and two hose reels.”

She added: “The fire was confined to the bedroom on the first floor. There was smoke damage to the whole floor but the fire was confined to one room.”

Three fire appliances were in attendance to deal with the incident. Initially, police Scenes of Crime Officers cordoned off the building while they carried out an investigation with fire chiefs, but were able to determine later in the day the fire had been accidental.

The fire service said at least one person had been in the property at the time of the fire, but no-one suffered any injuries.