PICTURED: Fire crews tackle '˜severe' blaze in lounge of Paulsgrove home

Three crews from Cosham and Portchester fire stations were called to the blaze at the Allaway Avenue property, Paulsgrove, at 11pm last night.

Cosham watch manager Jason Boh said the first priority of the 12 firefighters called to the incident, was to check there nobody was inside the house.

He said: ‘When we arrived at the scene the fire was coming out of the property’s windows, the lounge was engulfed in flames, so we were very worried for the safety of anyone who might have been inside.

‘We extinguished the fire, which took about half-an-hour, and thankfully there wasn’t anybody inside.

‘We did however rescue a dog, which luckily was in a part of the home that wasn’t as badly affected by the fire as it could have been.

‘It appeared to be fine.

‘At this point, because the house was empty, we have no idea how it started.’

An investigation into the cause of the fire is expected to take place.

The dog was collected by a relative of the occupier.

Firefighters did not have to ask residents living either side of the affected property to leave their homes, as they managed to contain the fire to that property.

Mr Boh added: ‘We left the scene at about 12.45am.

‘I want to praise the efforts of my colleagues because they worked extremely hard, they were very professional in everything they did.

‘It was the worst fire our watch team has seen in a while.’

A resident in the one of the home’s neighbouring properties, who asked not to be named, was alerted to the blaze by fire alarms.

She said: ‘We dialled 999. I ran out of my house and round to the front of next door’s, and the fire was really bad.

‘Some of the windows popped out. We were really worried someone might have been inside.’