A man has been arrested on suspicion of arson after two people escaped from a house fire in Abingdon thanks to their smoke alarm.

Police officers discovered that five or six small fires had been started in the home in Whitelock Road at about 11am yesterday and have subsequently arrested a 50-year-old man. 

Nobody was hurt in the incident and Oxfordshire Fire Service Station manager Mark Ames told the Oxford Mail yesterday that a man and a woman were woken by their smoke alarm and left the home safely.

Fifteen firefighters from Abingdon and Rewley Road fire stations tackled the blaze, which had started on the ground and first floors of the semi-detached home.

The man has been bailed until October 27.