Pair saved by smoke alarms in house fire

On Saturday evening, crews from Newtown, Montgomery and Welshpool attended a property fire in Abermule, Montgomery.

The occupants of the house had been enjoying the rugby in the upstairs living room, which was next to a bedroom.

After the match, they went downstairs to make a cup of tea. About 30 minutes later, they heard the upstairs smoke alarm sounding and went to investigate and discovered that a small fire had started in the corner of the bedroom and both the bedroom and landing were thick with smoke.

One of the occupants attempted to tackle the fire with a fire extinguisher but was unable to deal with the heavy smoke.

They then called the fire service and crews used breathing apparatus, three hose reel jets and two thermal imaging cameras. There was significant fire damage to the bedroom and smoke damage to the remainder of the house.

The occupants of the house were unhurt and said that the working smoke alarms in the property potentially saved their lives.

The room in which the fire started was being used as storage and the door was closed during the time of the fire, containing the fire. The fire was due to a faulty electrical appliance.

Neil Evans, the investigating fire officer said: “It is incidents like this that highlight the importance of having working smoke alarms and to have a clear escape route in the unfortunate event of a fire.

"It is also worth having a night-time routine which involves checking all electrical appliances, unplugging those not in use or not designed to be left on and making sure doors are closed.”