A family were completely unaware their home in Marlborough was on fire until a neighbour vaulted their fence to tell them.

Rosemary and Conrad Lohr were downstairs at their London Road home on Sunday evening when neighbour Mark Shire burst in and shouted: "Your house is on fire."

Mr Shire, who lives in Elcot Close, had spotted the flames from his home, which is behind Mr and Mrs Lohr's.

Mr Lohr, a finance director, said: "The first thing we knew about the fire was when this chap burst through the door to tell us the house was on fire."

Another neighbour in Elcot Close, Malcolm Ellis, had dialled 999 after spotting smoke and flames coming from the attic bedroom of the London Road house.

Mr Ellis went to the fence that separates their gardens and shouted to tell Mr and Mrs Lohr their home was on fire but they did not hear him.

The couple were downstairs in their three-storey home together with one of their three sons, Mike, 18, who was watching TV.

Another son, James, 17, was in his first floor bedroom working on his computer.

None of the family knew the top floor was on fire until Mr Shire told them, by which time, said Mrs Lohr, the fire was too far advanced to be tackled with an extinguisher.

Mr Lohr said: "It seems so surreal that everything is calm and quiet yet there is a fire raging upstairs."

Flames were leaping from the roof when the neighbours dialled 999 but by good fortune there happened to be a crew of firefighters at the town fire station. Marlborough firefighters had been called to a major blaze in Swindon and their Pewsey colleagues were on standby in Marlborough.

Within a couple of minutes of the alarm being raised, firefighters in breathing apparatus were tackling the blaze.

They were able to confine the damage to the one attic room but there was smoke damage to rooms below where water also brought ceilings down.

The Lohr family cat Sooty was in one of the bedrooms beneath but slept through the whole episode.

Mrs Lohr, a special needs teacher, said they were indebted to their neighbours for warning them about the blaze and also calling the fire brigade.

She said: "If it had been two hours later when we were asleep we would not have been so lucky."

Mr Lohr said their electricity supply had tripped out shortly before Mr Shire told them about the fire.

He said they had tried to put the power back on as they were unaware what had caused the supply to trip in the first place.

He said: "We want to say a big thank you to Mr Shire and Mr Ellis for their neighbourliness. Without their prompt action this house could have gone up in flames."

The house is on the market because the family are looking at another property in the town.

Just hours before the blaze they had shown a couple interested in buying the house around. Philosophically Mr Lohr said: "I get the feeling we may not be moving for some time."

The family went to stay with relatives on the night after the blaze but moved back in on Monday ready for the major clean-up operation and arrival of loss adjusters.