Firefighters from Shepton Mallet helped tackled a fire in a flat above a shop in Wells High Street in the early hours of this morning (October 9).

Just after 3.45am, occupants of flats above a shop noticed smoke residue and a smell of burning in a communal stairwell, coming from a first floor flat in Wells High Street.

The occupants who raised the alarm and placed a call to the fire service were trying to alert the occupant of the flat concerned but had no reply, so fire crews, mobilised from Wells, Glastonbury and Shepton Mallet, were made aware of this at the time of call.

Crews were soon on scene and had gained entry to the flat within minutes of arriving. One casualty, suffering from smoke inhalation, was led to safety by fire service personnel who rendered oxygen therapy awaiting the arrival of an ambulance.

In the meantime, the small fire, involving food stuffs left unattended in an oven, had been extinguished by two firefighters in breathing apparatus, using a hose reel jet and thermal imaging camera.

Crews worked well to prevent any further fire spread, containing it to the oven but remained on scene for some time clearing the property of smoke and making the area safe.

The incident was under control before 5am, with crews coming away from incident shortly afterwards. There were no further casualties.