Fire warning after chip plan blaze

9:10am Monday 1st December 2008

A CHIP pan fire started after a man put some chips on to cook, but then fell asleep in another room.

The pan burst into flames at the house in Allendale Gardens, Halliwell, and the man only realised what was happening when he was woken by the sound of his smoke alarm.

The cooker and kitchen units were damaged in the blaze and the man suffered minor burns to his hands as he tried to tackle the fire.

Firefighters put out the blaze at about 1am yesterday.

Watch commander Jim Bridge said: “This was very nearly a serious incident and could easily have resulted in serious injury or death if the smoke alarm hadn’t gone off.”

He added: “Never leave chip pans unattended, and never start cooking late at night when you may be tired.”