A WORKMAN inadvertently started a roof fire while stripping paint from a house in Wivenhoe.

Three fire crews from Wivenhoe and Colchester were called to the building in High Street on Thursday morning.

A spokesman for Essex County Fire and Rescue Service said crews spent two hours tackling a roof fire in Wivenhoe.

He added: "Firefighters were called to High Street at 11.51am after a man stripping paint from the outside of a detached house accidentally set fire to part of the roof.

"It spread to the roof space and it took three crews, including on-call firefighters from Wivenhoe and Colchester's aerial ladder platform, to extinguish the fire, at 1.48pm."