Article in the news this week, which highlights how easily house fires can take hold. A 48 year old grandmother was very lucky when she escaped a cooker blaze which took place in her kitchen. She was grilling toast in the morning, and forgot to turn off the grill when she had finished.
Ms Williams, who lives alone in a rented, second-floor flat had been ill, and was making toast so that she could take her antibiotics, so she wasn’t taking them on an empty stomach. She made the toast and closed the grill, but forgot to turn the appliance off. She left the kitchen and went into the living room, and a short while later the smoke alarms went off. These sounded through the whole building, as the alarms are all connected.
When Ms Williams opened the living room door, there was black smoke and flames. She then opened the front door and went to grab a fire extinguisher which was in the hallway. She then re-entered the flat and tried to extinguish the fire herself. Unfortunately, she had never used a fire extinguisher before, and therefore didn’t know how to operate the appliance. She then ran downstairs to the ground floor and knocked on the door. Her own mobile phone didn’t have any credit and wasn’t working, so she used her neighbour’s telephone to dial 999 and summon the emergency services.
The fire brigade were summoned at 7.03am and a spokesman for the fire and rescue service corroborated Ms Williams’’ version of events, saying that an unattended grill pan was the cause of the fire. The advice that they give is to close the door on the room that is on fire and get yourself and anyone else within the property away from the danger. You shouldn’t re-enter the building, and should contact the fire and rescue services as soon as possible.
Unless you are properly trained, the safest thing to do is not to try and tackle the fire yourself. The fire service are always working to inform the public of the dangers from cooking fires. Leaving cooking unattended means that small fires can easily take hold and spread, making them into life threatening blazes.
Fortunately in this case, the lady in question was safe, and although she was treated for smoke inhalation, she did not require admission to hospital – she was very lucky. Only the kitchen was damaged, as the fire was extinguished before it spread to other areas of the flat. It also makes you aware of how important smoke alarms are. If the alarm hadn’t gone off, she may not have realised that there was a fire until it had become much worse. So, make sure you have smoke alarms fitted in your house, and test them regularly – they can save your life!
