We had another bit of excitement this week, as you will see from the items below, our next door neighbour had a small fire, although there were not any flames, it was a smouldering wooden lintel. The neighbour had had some work done on a flat roof on Monday, and the lintel may have begun to smoulder after the workmen left.
This is a report from the Cornwall Fire Service:
St. Aubyn's Road - Truro at 07/03/2011 23:54
The fire and rescue service received a call to smoke in a property at St Aubyn's Road, Truro.
Two appliances and a Wholetime Officer were mobilised to the incident.
Crews arrived to find a fire that was between the floor and ceiling joist. Two breathing apparatus, one hose reel and a thermal imaging camera was used to deal with the fire.
Crews extinguished the fire but spent some considerable time cutting away and damping down to ensure the property was safe.
This is an article from todays West Briton (local newspaper), we are the bit highlighted in red:
Trainee doctor saves lives after raising alarm on discovering blaze.
A TRAINEE doctor saved lives by raising the alarm after his elderly neighbour did not hear her smoke detector.
Etienne Botha, 26, got out of bed when he heard a loud beeping.
After checking the oven at his home in St Aubyn's Road, Truro, late on Monday night, he saw smoke through the windowpane of a house across the street and dialled 999.
Mr Botha then went to neighbour Mrs Cornew's house and opened windows to disperse the smoke.
He said she was bewildered and "did not seem to know the sound was coming from her alarm".
Mrs Cornew, who is in her eighties, waited at a neighbour's house while the fire was tackled.
Neighbour John Treworthal, a retired television repairman, said Mr Botha's actions definitely saved lives.
"The fire could have killed somebody if we'd left it longer," said Mr Treworthal.
He was asleep in front of the television and, like Mrs Cornew, did not hear the alarm.
Two fire crews from Truro battled the flames for more than two hours. Witnesses said the firefighters had to repeatedly douse the area because smoke would die down, only to re-erupt. Wearing breathing equipment, they used thermal imaging to pinpoint the location of the fire and cut a hole in brickwork at the back of the property to gain access to smouldering wood under the roof.
Work had been undertaken on the roof earlier in the day by contractors from Truro-based Sowden Brothers, but a company boss said there was no connection between their work and the subsequent fire.
Mrs Cornew's smoke alarm had been fitted by the fire service just a few weeks ago on a home safety visit.
Despite the praise from neighbours Mr Botha, who is originally from Johannesburg, was reluctant to assume the role of hero, saying: "I don't think she was in immediate danger.
"I was just concerned because she lived by herself and had poor hearing.
"I felt a little bit guilty because the fire brigade came down the street with sirens and woke everybody up, but I suppose it's safety first."
No one was hurt in the blaze, which is now being investigated by the fire service.
Our neighbour came into our house while the Fire brigade sorted the problem, the poor lady was quite stressed and on top of that she had to put up with me trying to keep her happy, until 2.30 in the morning, by wearing a red nose!!! She' fine now.
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