A VILLAGE vicar woke to find his house on fire and his pet dog suffocated. The Rev John Allan, of St Vincent's, Littlebourne, near Canterbury, says his kitchen has been gutted by the blaze which is thought to have been caused by a faulty fridge-freezer.

Mr Allan and his wife, Liz, were fast asleep when the fire started, and they only woke because Mrs Allan heard a strange sound. "She told me she thought she could hear the bath running," said Mr Allan. "We went downstairs and the house was full of smoke. The fire was in the kitchen and, tragically, our dog Nellie was in there too."

Firemen brought the blaze under control but despite resuscitation attempts, they were unable to save the dog. "In the greater scheme of things, we're all right of course," said Mr Allan. "Everything's insured and so on. But the tragedy is that we lost Nellie."