A CAT nearly lived up to its name when it got stuck behind an open fire in Watford.

Smokey the cat disappeared up a chimney in Bradshaw Road and failed to reappear.

The fire brigade was called by its owners and officers from Watford Fire Station arrived at 7.40am yesterday (Thursday), and spent an hour and a half trying to free the feline.

Firefighter Russell Brad- shaw said: 'First we pitched ladders outside and used special rods to try to find the cat and encourage it down. We couldn't find anything, so we unscrewed the fireplace to see if it had got into a gap behind.

'We chipped away at the wall and there was the cat. It must have gone up the chimney, fallen down the flue and got stuck in the gap behind the fire.'