FIREFIGHTERS had to chop their way through a 6ft wooden house beam after it began to smoulder.

A wood burner in a house, on Worcester Road, Shenstone, had caused the decorative beam to heat up, sparking flames which then began to burn through the 9ins diameter piece of wood.

The smouldering timber set off smoke alarms and the occupants, a man and a woman, called the emergency services, at 9pm, yesterday.

Kidderminster Fire Station's red watch crew used a water backpack to put out the wood burner and then spent an hour chopping away and removing the burned section of the beam.

Watch manager, Mick Rowlands, said: "It takes a fair bit of work cutting through a 9ins square beam, 6ft long. We had to chop through the middle and remove that section.

"It's a strange job that takes time and resources and we just have a bit of chopped out oak to show for our efforts but you can't leave it there burning, you have to get it out."

Nobody was injured during the incident.