An incense burner nearly caused disaster for a man who had just moved into a new house.

Hot liquid from the burner, which was lodged into a radiator grill, dripped onto building materials on the floor and ignited when he was at work.

Firefighters from Strood station were called to the property, in Jersey Road, Rochester, at about 6.15am today.

A neighbour raised the alarm after hearing a smoke alarm and looking through the letterbox. After seeing smoke, they called firefighters.

Firefighters wore breathing equipment and used a ventilation fan to clear the property of smoke once they had put out the fire.

They spent an hour at the scene.