FIVE people are being rehomed after a fire gripped flats in Blackburn last night.

Firefighters were called to a property in Roebuck Close at around 1.30am after a blaze was reported in a first-floor bedrooom.

Crew members wearing breathing apparatus used two hosereel jets to extinguish the fire.

Watch manager Chris Archer said that the property had been left "gutted" by the incident and an investigation is underway.

The rest of the building was left smokelogged.

The tenant of the flat is understood to have been out at the time and his neighbours had managed to leave the property before firefighters arrived.

Mr Archer said: "The five occupants of the flats have had to be rehomed."