FIREFIGHTERS wearing breathing apparatus battled against piles of packed clothing as they tried to extinguish a blaze in a Worcester home.

Crews from the city's White Watch dowsed the blaze in the main bedroom of the home in Borrowdale Drive, Warndon.

The occupants of the house, a woman and her three children, escaped without injury after raising the alarm just after 6pm on Wednesday.

But Leading Firefighter David Haimes said fire crews sent in to the property to tackle the flames were hindered by piles of clothing stacked in boxes and suitcases.

"We sent two firefighters in with breathing apparatus to dowse the fire," he said.

"However, the occupants were in the process of moving house and had packed everything and stacked it in the front bedroom, where the fire broke out.

"The firefighters did very well to get to get to the fire so quickly."

Leading Firefighter Haimes said investigators would be visiting the home to establish the cause of fire.

However, he said the incident demonstrated the importance of having a smoke alarm.

"Everyone was downstairs and raised the alarm after hearing the smoke alarm," he added.

6 Earlier in the day, firefighters from Malvern were called to two kitchen fires within minutes of each other.

One crew was scrambled to a blaze in a basement flat in St Anne's Orchard, off Worcester Road. The fire had been extinguished before the crew arrived. But within minutes of leaving the scene, the crew was scrambled to a second kitchen in a first-floor flat in Meadowsweet Court, Watkins Way.

Two firefighters using breathing apparatus put out the flames and a woman received treatment for smoke inhalation at the scene.