Firefighters stopped a van fire spreading to a Dereham house after a passerby told the owner his vehicle had gone up in flames in his driveway.

One fire engine crew from Dereham took about nine minutes to extinguish the blaze in Theatre Street after being called at about 9.20am today, Thursday May 17.

The van's owner, who did not want to be named, said he had hooked up the Ford Transit to the mains electricity to recharge the battery for 30 minutes and gone inside his house.

He said flames from the engine had reached the inside of the van when he first saw it, and the heat or water from firefighters caused a hole in the front windscreen.

Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus used hose reel jets to extinguish the fire. There were no injuries, and neither the police nor paramedics were called.