A HOUSE fire sparked fears as it was believed a male was still inside the building.

Firefighters from Ulverston, Grange and Milnthorpe raced to a home at Pitt Garth, Haggs Lane, Cartmel after receiving reports at 3.39pm on Tuesday of a house fire.

Conrad Leather, station manager at Cumbria Fire and Rescue said the fire had "the potential to turn into a really horrible job", but thanks to internal fire alarms that were linked to an alarms company and the home owners neighbours altering the fire station, the fire was able to be put out quickly.

Mr Leather said: "We got quite a detailed response from the neighbour telling us that there was somebody in the house.

“The person in the house has neurological issues, so we were worried that the person would not leave the property, but when crews got there the individual was out of the property which was quite reassuring."

The firefighter said that crews from Grange-over-Sands, who were the first to arrive at the scene, gained access to the property before realising the occupant was no longer inside.

The fire, caused by an electrical fault, had happened to the rear of the property.

He said: “The first crew from Grange had a crew run around the back with a hose reel and they had to break through one of the back doors to get access to the house because they still thought the man was in, so it was all guns blazing from the initial attendance.

“The fire had taken hold, it was an electrical fault which had caused a spark. There was a shed roof, almost like an outhouse, and the electrical cable came in at roof level, that caught fire to the eaves and the plastic guttering, and that plastic guttering ended up dripping onto bits of rubbish on the roof, like tyres and a bit of wood, so then what we had was a fire on the roof, under the electrical spark.

“It could have been a lot worse, I think if had we been another five minutes we would have had a full roof fire which would have been a real problem.

“We spent quite a bit of time that it wasn’t going to smolder and come back to life.

“We needed the electricity board to come and resolve the electrical issue because it was still sparking and popping and banging which was quite spectacular. "

North West Ambulance Service also attended to provide first aid to the male occupant at the scene.

Firefighters were in attendance for two hours.