RESIDENTS had to be evacuated from a block of flats after a dust sheet caught fire.

Neighbours of a flat in Chestnut Road, Vange, had to flee their homes while firefighters dealt with a burning dust sheet in the home.

Firefighters were called to the scene and found the flat was heavily smoke logged, but there was no fire. The Basildon crews evacuated second-storey residents while they made the flat safe.

Station officer Evan Jelliss, said: “It looks like the decorators had been in the kitchen and a dust sheet was on top of the cooker, which was turned on.

“Fortunately the smoke alarm was on and the neighbours heard it.

“We opened windows in the communal hallway and asked top storey neighbours to keep their doors shut.”

The home owner was not in the flat at the time.