A home was destroyed after a mystery fire broke out and engulfed it in flames.
Firefighters from Worthing used breathing masks and a hose to control the blaze at the ground-floor flat in Meadow Road, Worthing, at 10pm on Sunday - but not before the damage had spread to the flat above.
No one was in the flat at the time the fire broke out and its cause has not been established. The flat is being examined by police scenes of crime officers and fire investigators.
A Worthing fire station spokesman said: "The one thing the flat didn't have was a smoke alarm.
"Had there been one, although the person wasn't in the flat, the neighbours could have been alerted a lot quicker.
"The flat is totally devastated. It has been completely destroyed by the fire, heat and smoke.
"The fire spread up at the back of the flat and cracked the windows of the first-floor flat."
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