Pensioner escapes home blaze

MATT BROWN

A call of nature helped save a Blenheim woman’s life after she escaped a terrifying blaze in her home.

Angela Helmbright was asleep at her Girling Avenue home when fire broke out.

The now homeless pensioner woke to use the bathroom when she spotted a small flame from her gas cooker was burning out of control.

It took four fire appliances nearly two hours to completely extinguish the blaze which gutted her home of 24 years.

“The police say I’m lucky to be alive,” Angela told Marlborough Weekly, while sitting on the lawn in front of the burnt-out shell of her home.

“I’m very grateful to my bladder.” Emergency crews were called to the fire just before 4am on Wednesday morning, with two Blenheim fire engines initially responding.

Fire and Emergency New Zealand shift manager Simon Lyford says when the fire crews arrived, the fire was well involved.

A second alarm was sounded, bringing another Blenheim crew and a truck from Renwick. They didn’t leave the scene until 6am. Simon says the fire is being investigated.

Angela’s memories, meanwhile, have gone up in smoke.

“I was moving out the 28th – I had all my photos packed up and in the kitchen. Now, they’re up in smoke,” Angela says.

“I stood over the street and watched it burn.”

She says she planned to cook some kai, on a gas stove and fell asleep on the couch.

“If my bladder hadn’t woken me up, I’d still be on the couch,” she says. “It was a little flicker of a flame, then it was an inferno.

“I tried to wake up my neighbour – but he’s hard of hearing. I went to my other neighbour and called emergency services.”

Angela wasn’t injured, but was shaken and says she hadn’t slept since the blaze.

She plans to move down to Bluff to live with her son.

Unattended cooking is the leading cause of house fires in New Zealand.

When you’re cooking

Don’t drink and fry. Alcohol is involved in half of all fatal fires. Instead, pre-prepare a meal, get takeaways, or use the microwave. Never attempt to drink alcohol or take medication that makes you sleepy when cooking.

Don’t leave the room when cooking. If you have to, always turn off the stove first. Unattended cooking is the leading cause of house fires in New Zealand. Keep curtains, tea towels, oven mitts and any flammable items well away from the cooking area when you’re cooking.

Keeping a clean and safe kitchen Clean your stovetop after each use. This prevents spilled fats and burnt foods from building up. Clean rangehood filters regularly. Keep a fire extinguisher and a fire blanket somewhere in your kitchen. Make sure you know how to use them.

Smoke alarms

Don’t install a smoke alarm in your kitchen. Smoke and heat from cooking (and the toaster) can activate the alarm. Smoke alarms shouldn’t be installed in the bathroom or laundry either. You can still protect these areas with a heat alarm. A heat alarm is designed to activate when the room reaches a set temperature. They are useful in places where a smoke alarm would usually give false alarms. If your frypan is on fire, place the lid of the frypan, a wet tea towel, or another large flat object (like a chopping board) over the pan to starve the fire of oxygen. Never throw water onto a frypan that’s on fire.

Never, ever attempt to carry a burning frypan outside. If you have a fire in your oven, try to turn off the power or gas, either at the stove or at the mains.