A BLAZE in a Worcester city warehouse, hoax calls and cars set ablaze in Worcestershire faced troops and emergency services as Green Goddesses raced through the county for the first time since 1977.

At 6pm yesterday, FBU firefighter crews walked out and within an hour, the Green Goddesses were in action.

Troops, police and ambulance crews were called to a house fire in Willow Close, Fernhill Heath, at 7pm - the first incident of the evening.

Thankfully, the small kitchen fire was under control when the forces arrived and mother of two Gaye Mann, whose husband was out at the time, suffered from only minor smoke inhalation. She did not need hospital treatment.

Residents in Fernhill Heath praised the work and quick response times of the team.

"The troops rolled the hose out really quickly and were ready to move into the house if there was a serious problem," said one near neighbour.

"They spent about 10 minutes searching the property thoroughly - I really admire the work they are doing."

Alec Mackie, spokesman for Hereford and Worcester Fire Brigade, also warned time wasters who made hoax calls.

A couple of trick calls came into the call centre, which we did not attend," he said. "Hoax calls are a menace and hoax callers are a menace. We have the technology to track these prank calls down and we will," he warned.

Retained firefighters from Pershore were also in action last night - to help extinguish a small blaze in the disused Jewson's warehouse in Diglis - just after 2am.

"There were two incidents in Worcester and four separate incidents of cars being deliberately set ablaze in Redditch," he added.