Emergency services were called at 11.35am today

One person was treated for smoke inhalation after firefighters were called to a fire in a a retirement housing block in Lowestoft early on Thursday afternoon.

The initial alarm was raised shortly after 11.30am when an automatic fire alarm was triggered at at Fiske Gardens on Holton Avenue.

A fire service spokesperson said that the company who own the block, Hanover Housing, had contacted the fire service shortly after the initial alarm reports of smoke in a corridor of the one of the flats at the property

They said that the fire team had worked to gain access to each of the six flats within the block to check for occupants and get them out of the building.

They added: “Everybody was out of the building and accounted for by 12.40pm.

“The fire team at that point had scaled back to two engines that were damping down the fire.”

In total seven people were evacuated from the property.

Five engines; three from Suffolk and two from Norfolk were sent to the fire, though the Norfolk vehicles were stood down at 12.30pm.

Two hosereel jets and breathing equipment were used to put out the fire.

One person had to be helped out of the building after suffering from the effects of smoke inhalation.

A spokesperson for the ambulance service said: “We were called at just before 11.50am today to Holton Avenue, Lowestoft, to a report of a fire.

“An ambulance crew and ambulance officer were dispatched.

“They treated one patient at the scene for smoke inhalation who did not require transport to hospital.”

A spokesperson for Suffolk Constabulary said that the fire was not being treated as suspicious.

No other buildings in the area were affected.