JEREMY Allen is counting the cost of a simple mistake today.The 49-year-old came home to find his home filled with smoke after leaving a kitchen drawer on top of his electric hob.

JEREMY Allen is counting the cost of a simple mistake today.

The 49-year-old came home to find his home filled with smoke after leaving a kitchen drawer on top of his electric hob.

Not only is his blackened kitchen covered in a thick layer of soot but the smoke also filled his bedrooms upstairs, seeping in to his bedcovers, carpets and curtains.

Mr Allen, of Garrison Lane, had left his home yesterday at 2pm to go for a routine visit to Ipswich hospital. He returned to his home at around 3.30pm, opened his door and was met with a cloud of thick smoke.

He could not see further than two foot in front of him and so shut the door and rushed to use his neighbour's phone to dial 999.

Two fire crews from Felixstowe arrived shortly after and had to wear breathing apparatus when putting the fire out with water fog.

Mr Allen had put the kitchen drawer on his hob before leaving his house, not knowing that it was switched on. The drawer had had cutlery in it but when the area had been made safe by the firefighters Mr Allen found that the drawer had disintegrated and only a few remains of knife blades could be seen among the ash on the floor.

Before the firefighters left they advised Mr Allen to buy a smoke alarm and to ventilate his house.

Mr Allen will now have to spend the next few days washing curtains, walls, bed linen and all the uncovered belongings in his house which are covered in a thin black layer of soot.