Firefighters have been praised after seven local crews helped to extinguish a fire that had engulfed a four-storey house in Builth Wells.

Praising the crews for their work, Station Manager Carwyn Thomas also issued a reminder to check your smoke alarms after it was found that the house had none working.

Crews spent six hours fighting the blaze at a large Victorian house on Llanelwedd Terrace on Monday, March 6, after being called out at 1.30am.

Firefighters were called in from Builth Wells, Llandrindod Wells, Llanwrtyd Wells, Rhayader, Talgarth, Aberystwyth and Merthyr Tydfil.

“I would like to thank the crews for their outstanding professionalism and commitment throughout this incident,” said Mr Thomas.

“On arrival we found smoke issuing from every window of the property. The fact that the fire damage was confined to only one room is a testament to the excellent work achieved by our firefighters.”

The fire had originated in a chimney and had spread to all four floors of the property.

The fire service extinguished the fire using 14 breathing apparatus, hose reel jets, thermal imaging cameras and other equipment. No one was injured.

Having extinguished the fire, crews installed working smoke alarms within the property.

“I cannot emphasise enough the importance of fitting working smoke alarms in your property and testing them regularly,” said Mr Thomas.

“In this instance, a smoke alarm could have alerted the occupants earlier and the fire service could have been deployed sooner.”

He added: “An incident of this kind highlights the important role that on-call firefighters conduct in protecting our communities.

“Within Powys, all of Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service Stations are crewed by on-call firefighters.

“These people are an essential part of the emergency services network, they come from all walks of life and most hold a career outside of the Fire Service, but they all share the enthusiasm to serve their communities as firefighters.”