Essex Fire Service urges people to be safe after woman's kitchen catches fire
Firefighters had to rescue a woman during kitchen fire awareness month
A woman was rescued from her smoke-filled house by firefighters in Witham in the middle of kitchen fire awareness month.
The woman had left chips cooking on a tray on the hob shortly after midnight while she was upstairs. When she found the food on fire, she tried to put it out with a dry tea towel, but this spread the flames to the extractor hood and cooker.
While the ground floor filled up with smoke, the woman went to the upstairs bedroom and called 999 at around 12.40am.
Watch Manager Andy Mott said: "We couldn’t get her out through the normal route down the stairs out the front door, so we had to put a ladder up to the window and escort her down to safety.”
Firefighters in oxygen masks then entered the house, identified the source of the fire and put it out before ventilating the house to get the smoke out.
Following the incident, Essex County Fire and Rescue Service urges the public to keep an eye on their food.
In 2020, there were 260 cooking fires in Essex homes. Just under half of those fires were caused when people were distracted or fell asleep while cooking – like in this case.
Andy Mott said setting a timer helps, but when in doubt, keeping the oven cold could be the safest option: “You know when people are tired, or they had a good night out, had a few drinks, not feeling 100 per cent – it might be safer to get a takeaway.”
Andy Mott said residents should make sure to have a smoke detector on every floor, and not take them down even if they keep going off.
He said fire services could help secure the home: “We’ll come out and do home fire and safety visits, and we do those for free.”
Essex County Fire and Rescue Service has published a checklist for kitchen safety:
- Ensure you have working smoke alarms on every level of your home to alert you to a fire
- Take care if you need to leave the kitchen while cooking. Take pans off the heat or turn them down to avoid risk
- Not feeling 100%? Order a takeaway – if you're very tired, have been drinking alcohol or are taking medication that might make you drowsy, it's safer not to risk cooking
- Use spark devices to light gas cookers – they are much safer than matches or lighters, as they don’t have a naked flame. They are safer around children, too
- Avoid leaving children in the kitchen alone when cooking on the hob. Keep matches and saucepan handles out of their reach to keep them safe
- Make sure saucepan handles don’t stick out – so they don’t get knocked off the stove
- Be fabric aware – loose clothing can easily catch fire, so take care not to lean over a hot hob, and always keep tea towels and cloths away from the cooker and hob
- Try to keep the oven, hob, cooker hood, extractor fan and grill clean – a built up of fat and grease can ignite and cause a fire
More detailed advice can be found on the service’s website.