People living close to Norwich City's Carrow Road stadium who are normally used to action on the pitch woke up to a different kind of drama.

Firefighters from Carrow and Sprowston raced out to a fire at a property in Kerrison Road, near to the Canaries' home ground.

Crews wore breathing apparatus and used hose reel jets to extinguish the fire which had broken out in a building but no-one was in the property at the time.

The property was directly opposite the former Laurence Scott and Electromotors factory which was converted into apartments a decade ago.

Fire crews were called to the incident at just after 6am on Wednesday (December 29) and were on scene for about an hour.

A 71-year-old woman who lived close to the affected property, but who wanted to remain anonymous, said: "I got woken up by the firemen - I thought I was dreaming.

“They said to check my bedroom for smoke and that was it.”

Another local, a man in his 40s, who wanted to remain anonymous, said: “I saw the flashing lights at about 7.10am.

"There were two fire engines and a lot of firefighters milling around.

“By that point they didn’t seem too concerned but there was someone searching the house because I could see the torch inside from my window.

“The road was blocked for a while and they sent some cars trying to get the factory at the end of the road around the block.

“It looked as though the firefighters had gone through the front upstairs window, but I didn’t see any fire or smoke or anything.

“I overheard some neighbours talking and I think the house is empty at the moment.

"I guess the firefighters had to get in to make absolutely sure there was no-one there.”

Fire crews used thermal imaging cameras to check for hot spots and also a fan to remove smoke from the property before they left the scene.

Meanwhile, in a separate incident on Wednesday morning, at just after 8.20am, fire crews from Sprowston, Carrow and Earlham attended reports of a house fire in Knox Road, Norwich.

It was extinguished before fire crews arrived.