FIRES damaged two homes in Oxford last night.

A fuse board caused a fire and smoke logged a first-floor flat in Beech Road, Headington, at 9.45pm yesterday.

A spokesman for the fire service said two crews battled with intense heat and smoke and used breathing apparatus, thermal imaging cameras, CO2 canisters and a hose reel to tackle the fire.

Smoke filled the flat and communal areas, the spokesman added.

Southern Electric and fire crews are investigating the cause of the fire.

Volunteers from the Red Cross were on the scene to help the residents who were forced from their flat.

At 11pm two fire crews were called to a blaze in Ulfgar Road, Wolvercote, where a blaze ripped through a two-bedroom, two-storey semi-detached house.

Four breathing apparatus and two hose reels were used and crews spent around two hours ensuring the fire was extinguished.

No one was injured in either house fire.