Cornwall Fire & Rescue Service Newsdesk

Callington at 29/03/2004 04:58

Crews from Callington, Launceston, Saltash and St Austell were called to a large house fire in the early hours of yesterday morning.
The owners of the property had fortunately been woken by strange noises in their 400 year old listed property. They did exactly what they should, and did not investigate. but got straight out of the property and called the fire brigade. Mother, father, daughter and son escaped uninjured. Crews tackled the blaze for a couple of hours but unfortunately it was well established and the first floor and roof were completely destroyed. The ground floor suffered smoke and water damage. A thorough investigation took place yesterday and fire investigators discovered that the fire started in the chimney of the woodburner. It has been assumed that the fire had been smouldering for perhaps weeks and had eventually emerged in one of the upstairs bedrooms.
Chimneys should be swept regularly as large amounts of soot from the fire can build up in the chimney and, like in this case, start to burn.
The owners of the property were extremely lucky as they did not have a smoke alarm so the outcome could have been devastating.
Cornwall County Fire Brigade advise that every home should have a working smoke alarm on each floor - and they should be checked once a week.
Chimneys using wood should be swept quarterly.