A Newton Abbot family has been left homeless after fire ravaged the first floor of their Highweek Road home.

Mum Samantha Fallon was working at The British Heart Foundation shop on Monday when her 18-year old daughter rang to say the house was on fire. The daughter and a friend were in the terraced property when they heard fire upstairs. They rang 999 then fled the property.

Smoking materials in the back bedroom are thought to have caused the fire and burned unchecked as there was no fire alarm in the property.

Two appliances from Newton Abbot arrived shortly after 3pm.

'Smoke was issuing from the property at first floor,' said Newton Abbot station manager Jon Chalk.

'The fire had spread to the roof space and it was the quick actions of firemen that prevented it spreading to neighbouring properties.

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