Firefighters putting out a house blaze called police when they stumbled across a cannabis factory.
Just before 5pm on Sunday fire crews were called to a house in Lawn Lane, Little Downham.
A fire had broken out in a bedroom.
The crews included the team from Littleport and donned breathing apparatus. They extinguished the fire using hose reels and jets and cleared the smoke “using a positive pressure ventilation fan.
“The house was safely evacuated before the crews arrived.”
But cannabis plants and a mini ‘factory’ didn’t go unnoticed and police were called.
“Cambridgeshire Fire & Rescue Service alerted us to a cannabis factory they discovered while putting out a fire in the bedroom,” said a police spokesperson.
“Around 40 plants were seized along with growing equipment.”
A 55-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of cultivating cannabis. He has since been released under investigation.
Fire crews returned to their stations by 7.10pm.
“The cause of the fire was accidental,” a fire service spokesman confirmed.
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