Guernsey Press

Flat occupants evacuated safely after kitchen fire

THE occupants of a top floor flat in Mill Street escaped a kitchen fire without serious injury after being stranded in the lounge until Fire & Rescue's arrival.

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Both ends of Mill Street were promptly cordoned off while Fire and Rescue got the kitchen fire under control (22320744)

The fire service arrived swiftly on the scene just after 7pm this evening to find what watch commander Dave Wallace described as a scene of 'sheer panic'.

'We were confronted with a large amount of smoke billowing out the windows when we turned up and two people hanging out the windows,' he said.

'They’re getting checked over by Ambulance and Rescue as we speak. One of them was feeling sick but there is nothing serious.'

'They were in the lounge, all doors were shut, but obviously they were distressed and two [of the three occupants] were hanging out the window.'

'So our initial thought was that we would do a ladder rescue, but we didn’t need to in the end.'

Fire and Rescue wad able to evacuate them in a safe and controlled manner.

'The initial five minutes was sheer panic, as it always is, but we’re professional enough to know what we’re doing.'

Mr Wallace said the occupants had responded in the correct way.

'If you can’t leave a building, then keep yourself in a safe place. The staircase was compromised, it was smoke-logged, so they would have been coming out to that and something like that is pure poison, you don’t want to be breathing that in.'

The police also attended in order to cordon off the bottom of Mill Street during the incident.