A MAN clambered on to the roof to escape a fierce fire which ripped through a Colchester house.

Six fire crews were called to Harsnett Road, in Colchester’s New Town area on Sunday night to deal with the fire, which started on the first floor and spread to a loft room and the ground floor.

They spent two-and-a-half hours at the scene, near the junction with Wimpole Road, tackling the burning semidetached house.

The man, in his forties, was taken to Colchester General Hospital with burns and the effects of smoke inhalation.

Fire service incident commander Stuart Hare said: “When the crews arrived at the scene, the fire was well developed in the roof of the semidetached property and a man in the house had managed to get himself out on to the roof .

“Two firefighters from Colchester brought the man to safety via a ladder at the rear of the house.

“He suffered from the effects of the smoke generated by the fire. The crews did an excellent job of rescuing the man and preventing the fire from destroying the house next door.”

The house’s owners were away on holiday and it is understood a relative had been staying there.

Sophie Lane who owns the house next door had herself only just returned from holiday a few minutes minutes earlier when she heard an alarm go off.

Ms Lane, who lives there with with daughters Lily, four, and Holly, six, said: “I thought it was my car. It keeps going off, so I went outside and realised it was a fire alarm.

“The firefighters were brilliant.

If they hadn’t got here as quickly as they did, my house would have gone up, too.”

Ms Lane’s property did suffer enough water and smoke damage for the family to have to move out and stay with relatives.

She said: “You could see a bit of smoke and fire through the front door so I got the girls out.”

Her daughters were looked after by a neighbour, then spent the night with their grandparents.

Ms Lane added: “They didn’t see too much. They were just worried about their school uniforms and their teddies.

“I’m still shell-shocked, though. You keep thinking ‘what if?’”

Her next door neighbour, Margaret Bird, helped Sophie and her family while nervously watching as the flames threatened her home, too.

She said: “The first I knew was Sophie banging on the door with the children. We got everything out of their house we could. There was smoke and it wasn’t long before it went up.

There was a ‘phew’ and it just went.

“They had a room in the loft and the flames went through the roof.

“By now, everybody was out and the firefighters were wonderful and saved the other homes.”

Harsnett Road is a narrow street with a mixture of semidetached and terraced homes with large trees and little space.

Firefighters were forced to push some cars out of the way with a fire engine to get close to the blaze.

The owners of the house have been informed about the fire, and are understood to be returning from holiday early.

Fire crews were called from Colchester, Wivenhoe, Coggeshall and Clacton fire stations and put the fire out shortly before 11pm.

A joint police and fire service investigation into the cause of the fire is under way, though there are not thought to be any suspicious circumstances.