A Southampton resident has told how she woke to find eight-foot flames and a pillar of black smoke outside her home.“The firefighters told me they could see the smoke from Barnes’ Corner,” said Ianthia Wade.“I’m just lucky the fire didn’t start at midnight or I would have been asleep and wouldn’t have heard anything.”Ianthia Wade said she was lying in her bed last Sunday when she heard a crackling sound.“I thought it was the television, so I turned that off. Then I thought it might be rain against my window, but it wasn’t raining.”She stepped out of her bedroom and through the window saw black smoke pouring from an outdoor power room.“I saw this black cloud of smoke coming from outside. There were bright orange flames at least eight feet high. I called 911 and got everybody out of the house.“They said it was an electrical fire. It was probably going for about two or three hours.”She praised the Bermuda Fire Service for a very quick response, but said she was surprised the fire truck was unable to fit into her driveway.“They said the fire trucks require a ten to 12ft access,” she said. “They told me they measured the main roads to know where they can and can’t drive the truck, but they haven’t checked all the side lanes.”Mrs Wade said the truck’s hose was long enough to reach the fire and extinguish it without any difficulty.However she said the discovery was enough to make her decide to trim back her hedges and she recommended all residents do the same to ensure emergency vehicles can reach their homes.“You don’t want to have to call an emergency vehicle to your home but if something happens you want to make sure they can reach you,” she said.Chief fire officer Vincent Hollinsid has previously acknowledged that his trucks are too wide for certain areas but that homeowners need not worry.“We have the equipment, the hoses and 2,000-gallon water tankers,” he said. ‘If there is an area we can’t access, we can pump the water up. We are also allowed, thanks to the Fire Service Act of 1982, to access anyone’s water tank without their permission to extinguish any fire. We do have the equipment to deal with this.”Mrs Wade said that the fire reminded her of the importance of having reliable insurance, even in today’s tough economic climate.“You often hear people say I have always paid my insurance, and I have never got my money back. It only takes something to happen once. It’s all about protection.“It’s impossible to imagine how one feels when they discover the house is on fire. I now know that feeling.”She said that while the fire totally gutted the power room it didn’t spread to the main house and the wind direction prevented smoke damage.