Members of a family had to evacuate their home when a fire broke out just as they were settling down to Sunday lunch.

The blaze, in an upstairs bedroom, interrupted the meal at about 2.45pm yesterday.

Shirley Cullen, 67, who lives in the house in Orpen Road, Hove, fled with her husband and daughter.

She said: "We had all sat down to eat lunch and began to smell burning, like burnt toast. Then the lights began to flicker on and off so we knew something was wrong.

"We went upstairs to see what had happened and the whole of the top of the house was black with smoke. We didn't waste any time getting out. We don't know how it started and were all very shocked."

Firefighters from Hove put the fire out in half an hour. Last night the cause of the fire was unknown.

Firefighters believe a fire in an industrial building in Hove was started deliberately.

Rubbish in the boiler room of a multi-unit building between Conway Street and Ellen Street was set alight on Saturday evening.

Although the fire was confined to a cupboard there was severe smoke damage to the room.

A Brighton fire station spokesman said: "We believe this was arson."