Essex: Family homeless after kitchen blaze
A FAMILY has been made homeless after a fire destroyed their kitchen and damaged the rest of their house in Great Chesterford.
A couple and three children were lucky to escape the blaze which began to sweep through their High Street property shortly before 7.30pm on Sunday evening.
Two crews from Saffron Walden attended the incident, but on arrival they found that the kitchen, were the fire started in a chip pan, was 25 per cent ablaze.
The fire has prompted a stark warning about the dangers of leaving cooking unattended.
Saffron Walden sub officer Nigel Webb said: “Chip pans can be extremely dangerous things.
“We attend a number of incidents of this kind where the pans overheat and catch fire and often the natural reaction is to pour water onto the flames.
“That can have disastrous effects as, in this instance, the occupant of the house tried to tackle the fire himself with water and ended up accelerating the fire.”
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Firefighters had extinguished the fire by 8pm using wearing breathing apparatus and two hoses.
They remained at the scene to ensure that there were no hot spots and to ventilate the property.
More to follow.
