Tuesday 31
August
19.27
Wentforth Drive, Cossham
Fire crews were called after a chip pan overheated and caught on
fire, badly damaging a kitchen.
With no working
smoke alarm in the property, it was fortunate that the occupants, a
mother and her teenage daughter, were alerted to the fire before it
had chance to spread.
On discovering the
fire the lady turned off the power to the chip pan at the mains and
closed the door on the kitchen before leaving the property. This
meant the fire and smoke damage did not spread to the rest of the
house.
Two firefighters
wearing breathing apparatus (BA) extinguished the small fire using
a high pressure hose reel. While the fire was contained to the
cooker area, the rest of the kitchen was badly damaged as a result
of the smoke.
Following the
incident, crews fitted smoke detectors in the house. Smoke detectors will pick up traces of smoke
before you do, for more information read our leaflet on smoke
detectors (PDF 78kb, opens in a new window)
Fires that start
in the kitchen account for over half of all house fires attended by
AF&RS each year. One of the main causes is when cooking is left
unattended and overheats. If you are cooking using the hob or
grill, don’t leave the kitchen.
And if you have a
chip pan, be safe and replace it with a thermostatically controlled
deep fat fryer. Or cook your chips in the oven. For
more information on staying safe in the kitchen visit our kitchen
safety pages.