Elderly woman evacuated from Cold Ash home in fire

Watch manager of White Watch at Newbury Fire Station, Phil Knight, said two pumps from Newbury were called at 9.30pm to a house at The Ridge, after an elderly woman had been evacuated from the property by neighbours, after being alerted by a smoke alarm.
On arrival firefighters discovered smoke issuing from the kitchen and the fire was extinguished by two firefighters wearing breathing apparatus and using a hosereel.
Ambulance services were also at the scene, but no-one was taken to hospital.
The Kitchen was not badly damaged in the fire and the cause was put down to accidental.
Mr Knight gave a safety warning afterwards on the dangers of leaving items on hobs:
“People use them (hobs) as worktops and we get this quite often,” said Mr Knight.
The two ‘golden rules’ he said, were firstly not to store any items on hobs, including pots and pans and secondly always turn of the power source using the wall switch, to prevent any danger of fire should the hob be accidentally turned on, or left switched on.
“If the hob gets accidentally turned on, or is left on - even on low - the heat builds up and will start to melt items and set them on fire,” said Mr Knight.