A HOME owner has been praised for 'good housekeeping' after firefighters were forced to tackle a garage blaze which contained gas cylinders.

Crews from Oxfordshire County Council fought the domestic garage fire shortly before midnight in Main Street, Grove, after a faulty car battery charger caught alight.

Firefighters said it was a challenging emergency as the garage stored both butane cylinders as well as flammable paints and thinners.

The home also neighboured a thatched cottage.

Watch manager Sean Mienie said: "On arrival we were faced with a challenging incident as we needed to protect the neighbours thatch property and fight a fire with cylinders involved in the garage.

"Due the owner knowing the exact location of the cylinders in his garage as well as storing all of his paints and thinners in a cabinet we were able to concentrate our attack on specific areas.

"Good housekeeping and the owner’s knowledge of his contents and layout helped us to deal with this incident more effectively."

Crews sprayed the neighbouring thatch cottage with water to stop the fire spreading and becoming a 'large scale incident' and water was also protective sprays applied to the cylinders to keep them from exploding and beocming projectiles.

Firefighters tackled the blaze for almost five hours, nobody was injured.

Mr Mienie added: "On our arrival good information from the occupier helps us to understand what we are facing and where to focus our initial attacks and we strongly recommend that members of the public practise similarly good housekeeping in their own garages.”