A candle caused the fire which wrecked a first floor flat and balcony at a Croxley Green pub last week.

The Harvester restaurant, in Watford Road, suffered serious damage to the manager’s accommodation when a blaze tore through it last Thursday (August 15).

Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service has since confirmed that an "unattended candle" was the cause of the accidental fire, which also caused water damage to the restaurant partly due to a pipe which burst during the fire.

The water damage was immediately repaired and the restaurant was open for business as normal the following day.

Police closed Watford Road while firefighters made safe the area, and nobody was either rescued or injured in the blaze.

A fire service spokesman said: "We can confirm that it was a candle left unattended which caused the fire."

A Harvester spokeswoman said: "The fire was contained to the upstairs flat and balcony area.

"There was some water damage to the restaurant - partly due to putting the fire out and also a water pipe burst during the fire.

"The trading area was repaired as soon as possible and the restaurant opened for trading as normal on Friday, August 16. We are now arranging the works to repair the upstairs damage.

"We are liaising with the fire service and our own insurance investigators. We will await their full report and therefore can’t speculate on the cause of the fire."