FIRE officers have issued an urgent warning after a non-reported chimney fire led to the complete destruction of a house at Whiddon Down last Friday evening.
Eight crews from across West Devon battled to save the recently constructed house, built in traditional cob, thatch and timber, but the fire had already taken hold of the roof when they arrived.
Chagford fire commander Iain Rice said cob buildings which always contained a lot of timber had a very low fire resistance and it was like 'a great bonfire'.
'Unfortunately the call we had was of a roof fire and not a chimney fire and the building was well alight by the time we arrived,' he said.
'With a building like this a fire spreads so quickly and although we had a large team of firefighters on the job there was very little we could do to stop it.'
He said this was the third incident in a month where a chimney fire had got out of control and on this occasion officers were at the scene until midday on Saturday.
'The message is that chimney fires should not be ignored even if they seem quite trivial,' he added. 'This is a particularly severe example of what can happen but people need to be especially aware in an area where there are a number of cob and thatch dwellings.'