A FIRE which broke out in a Carlisle flat killed a couple’ s pet tortoise.

Fire crews from the east and west of the city were called out at 11.30am after a neighbour smelled smoke which had seeped out of the first floor flat in Aglionby Street.

After breaking into the smoke-filled property, two firefighters wearing breathing apparatus discovered that the blaze had started in heated vivarium.

“The tortoise had crawled into its water dish but unfortunately it didn’t survive,” said a spokesman for Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service.

“There was a lot of heat in the property, and melted remote controls; there was also smoke throughout the property. The smoke alarms had activated but the flat below was empty.”

The couple who live in the property were out of the county at the time the fire broke out. The cause is believed to have been an electrical fault. The fire crews were there for an hour.