A FIRE broke out in the roof of a house in the early hours of this morning (Thursday) – just a day after the occupant moved out.

Firefighters from St Albans were called to the scene in Butterfield Lane at around 2.30am and found smoke seeping out from between the roof tiles.

The flames had spread throughout the loft of the end of terrace house and to the first floor, which suffered substantial damage in the blaze.

It took crews around 20 minutes to put out the flames.

Luckily, there was nobody inside the property as the resident had moved to another house the previous day.

The blaze is being treated as accidental and may have been caused by an electrical fault.