A teenager has been praised after helping to put out a fire in his Jaywick home.

Colbayns High School pupil Sean Humberstone, 15, was at home in Glebe Way when fire broke out at noon on Monday.

Sean's sister Mandie, 24 and friend Alan Newcombe were also present. Alan rang for help while Sean battled the blaze.

His father Les said when the fire started his son helped quell the blaze until the fire brigade arrived.

He added: "My son was upstairs and my daughter was downstairs. He was trying to put it out, and if it had not been for him the whole house would have gone. He turned off the electricity and gas and kept running up and down stairs with buckets of water.

Two upstairs bedrooms were destroyed, said Mr Humberstone, a skip lorry driver with Brightlingsea-based Eastern Waste Disposal.

The cause of the blaze is not yet known.

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