THE RESIDENT of a home destroyed by fire this afternoon has thanked police and fire fighters for a 'brilliant job' in extinguishing the blaze.

Naomi Maunder, 25, of 16 Magnolia Court in Tiverton said: "I'd Just want to say thank you to the police, and the fire service for helping out, and putting out my fire. They've done a brilliant job."
"I'd also like to thank my family and friends who have rallied around, it's been a very emotional day."
"The house had all my stuff in it, and my life, but I'm just thankful my kids weren't in there at the time."
Fire crews were called at around 4:00pm this afternoon - Tuesday 23 July - to the fire which had spread to five properties, all consisting of two floors over two blocks.
The first block measuring approximately 9m by 12m consisting of three domestic two storey properties and the second block measuring approximately 8m by 8m consisting of two, two storey domestic premises.
Initially, two appliances from Tiverton were mobilised, but due to the amount of emergency calls from worried onlookers, a further two appliances from Bampton and Cullompton attended.
Extra crews were called from Witheridge and Honiton, with seventh carrying compressed air foar arriving from Crediton.
An incident support unit from Taunton and a command unit from Exmouth were also in attendance.
The incident has been sectorised and crews battled against the flames using eight breathing apparatus wearers, four hose reel jets and one main jet.
One property is severely damaged by fire, one property had a severely damaged roof, first floor and conservatory. Three other properties were damaged by smoke.
Crew manager at Tiverton Fire Station Trevor Hawkins said: "We were faced with quite difficult conditions due to a little bit of breeze which spread the fire to adjacent properties.
"The fire would have appeared to spread through the back gardens of those properties.
"The good point is that everybody was out, no persons reported inside, so it was a case of just dealing with the fire.
"Most of the owners were present, and some have come back, but not in the main house that's been mainly affected.
"Fire investigation is still ongoing and we don't know what the cause is just at the moment.
"The fire will staying with relatives and family, and the fire and emergency support service help rehouse people and get people back on their feet."
Alan Brailey, who lets one of the properties affected by smoke damage added: "The fire started in the garden and made its way through into the house.
"The roof of the house which was mainly affected by the fire has completely gone and everything upstairs has just burnt to the ground.
"Flames and smoke were coming about 20ft out of the roof, and it's taken the conservatory out on the house on the opposite side too.
Eyewitness Zoe Bradburn added: "As far as we know, my stepdaughter's mum got a phone call because she was told her fence was on fire.
"In her next door neighbour's garden there was apparently three explosions so as we live nearby we were asked to go and check and make sure everything was ok.
"When we got here, there were no fire engines, the whole house was on fire - then the whole roof collapsed."