Fire rips through family cottage

A FAMILY are unable to return to their home after a fire ripped through the roof of a thatched cottage.

A FAMILY are unable to return to their home after a fire ripped through the roof of a thatched cottage in Henham’s High Street.

Two adults and two children survived when a blaze threatened to completely destroy the house at around 11am on Saturday (July 2).

Firefighters arrived within minutes of the alarm being raised, but on arrival they found the thatched roof was already 20 per cent alight.

After battling for three hours, crews from Stansted, Newport, Thaxted, Saffron Walden, Leaden Roding and Bishop’s Stortford gained control and prevented the whole house from being destroyed.

Divisional Officer Ray Skinner said: “Crews did an excellent job at this fire. Thatch fire present firefighters with a great many problems but the crews here worked extremely hard and thanks to them the fire was confined to the roof with only water and smoke damage to the remainder of the property.

“Fighting thatch fire is very labour intensive and crews quickly got to work stripping the thatched roof away to get to the seat of the fire and it is thanks to them that this cottage was not completely destroyed by fire.”