A fire occurred this evening on Milman Road in central Reading.

Onlookers described billows of smoke rising from a terraced house on the street. A fire engine and several firefighters attended the scene.

Liam Bishop said that he saw the firefighters enter the house and then ask several neighbours if they knew who lived in the basement flat.

“I met a woman who lived in the building who had called the fire brigade,” he said. “No one knew how the fire started but the fire engine did come quickly.”

Several onlookers confirmed that the fire was put out within a short span of time but smelled really bad. The area has since been cordoned off.

“It was like only a section of the house that was on fire,” a neighbour revealed. “The firefighters put it out very quickly, but we were worried that if they had not come sooner the whole house may have gone up in flames.”