About 15 firefighters were sent to a Huntingdon town centre flat after a fire broke out in a living room this morning.
Crews from Huntingdon and St Neots went to Parkside, off St Germain Walk, at about 8.20am.
They found smoke coming from the ground floor where a sofa was on fire and two firefighters wearing oxygen masks went inside to put it out.
Huntingdon’s white watch commander Simon Thompson said: “It was started accidentally. The smoke alarm sounded and everyone was out safe.
“The people were awake at the time, but if the alarm had not gone off, it could quite easily have been a lot worse.”
Mr Thompson, who reminded people of the importance of testing smoke alarms, said the fire was contained to one flat, which suffered smoke damage.
A ventilation fan, brought into service for the first time in Cambridgeshire earlier this year, was used to clear the fumes.
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