THE actions of three teenagers have been praised by Tavistock fire officers, after their prompt call saved a town centre building from a potentially serious fire on Saturday night.

Two fire crews were on the scene at the former Pillar's newsagents in Market Street within minutes of the call being made from a mobile phone just before 7.30pm.

There was a small fire in the door frame of the shop and this was extinguished using one hose reel, said incident commander Glenn Arundel.

'What the three boys did was good and they deserve praise,' he said.

'Had we not been alerted so quickly the outcome could have been very different.'

Owner of the historic building, John Taylor, said they had been burning off fungus after finding some dry rot in the building

'We had finished the work but were keeping an eye on the situation,' he said.

'I nipped off for a few minutes and by the time I got back the fire brigade was there.'

Mr Taylor said he was impressed by the quick thinking of the three teenagers and the speed in which the fire brigade arrived on the scene.

• FIREFIGHTERS from Tavistock were called to deal with a car blaze on the outskirts of the town during the early hours of Monday morning.

Firecrews used breathing apparatus and a hose reel to extinguish the fire in a vehicle believed to have been a Vauxhall estate car, parked in playing fields at Crowndale Road.

The car was severely damaged by the fire.