Allotments 4 All

My neighbours bungalow caught fire yesterday, it started in the kitchen. It could have been found earlier if the smoke alarm had worked correctly. I heard a sound which sounded like a vehicle reversing, three slow beeps and a gap, then three more slow beeps. By the time it was found (by the neighbour the other side) it had damaged the cupboard units, and blackened the ceilings of four rooms, luckily no substantial damage was done.

The cause of the fire..........
A plastic tray accidentally got on top of a built in electric hob, the tray caught fire when a rotary switch was accidentally knocked "on".

This reminds me of when I had my own decorating firm. We were redecorating a kitchen fitted with one of these hobs. Dust sheets were placed over the work surfaces and we were washing the ceiling, when the dust sheet caught fire (the rotary switch had been knocked "on"). I have never been happy with these hobs ever since. If they must make these dangerous hobs then at least they should have locking switches which you have to pull up to switch on, like gas taps which have to be pushed in to turn on. These hobs should never be built in level with the worktop but raised 40 to 50mm above.

The owner and a friend put the fire out, I told them to turn the electric and oil supply off, so that they presented no risk to the firemen.

The fire service were told that the building was "clear" and the fire was out, imagine my surprise when a fire officer turned up in a car followed by two fire engines. I spent most of the 1950's in The Civil Defence Corps. With the information given we would not have committed so many resources to one incident (one unit would have been committed and if more were needed they would have called for backup).

Edit: I had to edit this post because the website would not accept the word "k n o b" but converted it to "thingy".

Grandma set light to ours a few years ago... gas turned down to minimum.. couldn't see the flame in the sunlight... dried up some plastic freezer trays and put them on the hob before going to collect the boys from school...
:-[