AN ESSEX family have been left homeless after a fire engulfed their kitchen.Firefighters from Basildon and Wickford were called to a house in Market Avenue, Wickford, at about 3.30am.
AN ESSEX family have been left homeless after a fire engulfed their kitchen.
Firefighters from Basildon and Wickford were called to a house in Market Avenue, Wickford, at about 3.30am today after the family were woken up by their smoke alarm.
The kitchen was 100 percent alight and the rest of the ground floor flat was smoke logged.
Sub officer Brian Mansfield from Basildon fire station said: “This incident stresses the importance of a working smoke alarm. If the family had not heard the smoke alarm, the outcome could have been far worse.
“The woman heard the alarm and woke her partner and three children. I can only praise the quick thinking of the woman who got them all out of the flat to safety. Her partner then raised the alarm to the neighbours in the surrounding flats.”
The fire is believed to have started in the electrical cupboard in the kitchen.
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