A woman told last night of her agonising wait for firefighters as a car fire threatened to engulf her detached village home.

Jade Terry, 26, of Yare View Close, Reedham, had just dropped off fiance Chris Gray, 28, at the Broadland village's Joseph House residential home where they both work when the drama unfolded just before 1pm on Saturday.

Ms Terry, who is the home's deputy manager, said: 'I drove back home and went indoors and a few minutes later I heard someone banging on the door.'

She discovered it was her neighbour on the doorstep frantically pointing to thick smoke rising from Ms Terry's BMW seven series parked in front of the garage.

Realising the risk of the fire spreading to the garage and kitchen, she dialled 999 and rushed outside with her two cats and two dogs.

Ms Terry said all she could then do was wait and confessed that although firefighters responded quickly 'it seemed like an age at the time'.

Crews from from Acle and Great Yarmouth wore breathing apparatus as they tackled the blaze, thought to have started in the engine, using hose reel jets.

The car was burnt out but the firefighters' quick work saved the house from serious damage although the kitchen door and garage door were destroyed and there was some fire damage inside the kitchen and garage.

The side wall was badly scorched with damage to guttering and the wall of a neighbour's house and paintwork on their car were also affected.

Ms Terry, who was still badly shaken hours afterwards, said: 'There was no sign of any smoke coming from the car when I parked it.'

Acknowledging they had 'got away lucky', maintenance man Mr Gray said: 'The firefighters said it was only thanks to Jade closing the doors inside the house that stopped the blaze sweeping right through the property.'

He said they had been in the house for two years and were getting married in July.

'This is all we needed at the start of the year,' he said.