A ROOF fire at a house at Birchcleave near Grenofen caused damage estimated at around £100,000.

Almost half of the roof of the property was destroyed by the blaze, while the other half was damaged by smoke.

The fire broke out in the roof of the house at around 9am last Thursday.

Two fire appliances from Tavistock were initially sent to the scene, but on the way more back-up from Yelverton was called in.

The intense heat of the blaze required a high turnover of firefighters, so another crew from Crownhill in Plymouth also attended.

Tavistock fire chief Chris Neale said the crews arrived at the scene to find the roof of the house was well alight, with smoke emitting from both ends of it.

Firefighters with breathing apparatus used the hatch area to enter the roof space and attempted to contain the fire — a job Mr Neale described as 'extremely hot and hazardous'.

With the roof space more secure, six teams wearing breathing apparatus tackled the fire with two jets and a hose reel jet. The blaze was under control after an hour.

A number of valuable pictures and antiques stored in the roof area were completely destroyed by the fire, but no-one was injured in the incident.

Investigations into the cause of the fire are ongoing.