Several houses were evacuated this morning after a house fire affected a gas supply.

East Anglian Daily Times: Adastral Close fire, FelixstoweAdastral Close fire, Felixstowe (Image: Archant)

A woman has thanked firefighters for stopping the spread of a blaze at her Felixstowe home in the early hours of this morning.

Kahira Herne was woken by neighbours shouting about a fire in the back garden of her Adastral Close house.

It all happened at around 3.45am and also sparked an evacuation on the private estate because it was so close to a gas main.

Ms Herne said she had been having a fire on a barbeque in her garden the previous evening and put it out before going to bed.

“The next thing I know the neighbours are round saying there’s a fire again,” she said.

“It was just a case of getting out and grabbing everything I could.”

Ms Herne called the fire service who sent two crews from their Felixstowe station.

However National Grid Gas was also called because there was a gas leak in the garden, meaning there was the potential risk of an explosion.

The two organisations had the situation under control by 5.51am – but Ms Herne’s property bears the scars of the incident.

She said: “I’m probably going to need a whole new sofa and some new carpet but upstairs isn’t too bad. And there’s a huge whole in my garden.”

The electric box on the outside wall of Ms Herne’s living room also suffered as did decking outside the back door, both ending up burnt on the ground.

Ms Herne praised the actions of the firefighters for containing the blaze.

“They were here pretty quickly,” she said. “They were really nice.

“They did a fantastic job. I can’t fault any of them. They were very supporting and helpful.”

Suffolk police said they had been made aware of the incident by the fire service and that neighbours who had been evacuated were able to return to their homes “fairly quickly”.

The fire is being treated as accidental.