HOUSEHOLDERS are being warned to not leave rubbish in their garden after firefighters from Carlisle tackled a blaze which had the potential to spread to a nearby house.

The 'large fire' involved two sofas which had been dumped in a garden in Henderson Road, Currock.

The alarm was raised at around 2.30pm yesterday.

Firefighters from the city's Carlisle East station arrived to find a fire burning so fiercely that it had spread to the garden fence and melted the plastic guttering on a nearby garage.

In a social media post, the crew who tackled the fire said: "In attendance, crews discovered a fire involving two sofas in the garden of a property. They had been deliberately set fire to. The fire had spread to the garden fence, and had melted the guttering on a nearby garage.

"Swift action by the crew managed to knock the fire down quickly before it could get into the garage and house.

"The blaze was extinguished using one hosereel and small tools."

The post added: "We would advise against leaving unwanted furniture and flammable rubbish in gardens.

"Get them taken away as soon as they aren’t wanted.

"We managed to attend and put out the fire quickly on this occasion, but if we had been a couple minutes later, we would definitely have been attending a serious fire involving a property and a garage."