THIRTY firefighters fought a fire which started in woodland and spread to the roof of nearby houses at Park Gate yesterday evening.

It is believed that the fire was caused by sunlight reflecting off a window in a garden shed which set nearby trees alight.

Six engines – from Hightown, Fareham, Botley and St Marys including an aerial platform – arrived at the scene at 5.40pm and spent two hours fighting the fire.

Group Manager Ty Whitlock said: We were called to a developing fire which had started as an exterior fire and had moved to the interior roof of an end terrace house and then quickly spread to a neighbouring property.

“It spread incredibly quickly in the early stages and crews fought extremely had to tackle and extinguish the fire.”

“No one was injured in the fire. The residents of the property had evacuated by the time we arrived and the neighbours were out.”