Fire crews swift action saves lives

Bedfordshire and Luton Fire and Rescue Control received several 999 calls from 01.39 onwards on Friday 23rd April about a fire in a house at Salisbury Road, Luton.

On arrival crews found a mobility scooter blazing in the entrance hall to the property, thick smoke in the stairs and a man trapped inside. After putting out the fire, crews wearing Breathing Apparatus gained access to the property and rescued the man who was taken to hospital by the ambulance service.

Incident and Station Commander Kevin Moores said: “This was an excellent example of emergency services equipped and trained to save someone’s life. Without the intervention of the Fire and Rescue Service this man would not have been able to escape the fire.

“His home was filled with thick, black smoke which only firefighters with BA equipment could endure.”

An investigation is underway to discover how the fire started - if it was in or around the mobility scooter and if so, the cause of ignition.

A Fire Investigation (FIst) Officer will be working with a Police Scenes of Crime Officer (SoCO) to pull together the evidence from the scene.

MEANWHILE ON 20TH APRIL : WARNING after five people rescued from fire

Fire crews had to rescue five people from a flat fire after a wheelie bin had been set alight in the stairwell.

The fire was one of a series started deliberately in waste bins in the Luton area - firefighters were called to three in quick succession in the early hours of 20th April:

01.50 fire in bin in Vincent Road, Leagrave - a fire appliance from Luton attended and put out the fire and was then mobilised to:

02.08 fire in bin at Ackworth Court in Ackworth Crescent but approached scene crews noticed smoke arising from:

Pond Close where the stairwell was smokelogged and people were trapped in four flats on ground and first floor.

Further crews from Stopsley and Toddington, who had been mobilised after a 999 call to Fire Control at 02.11, joined the Pond Close fire and whilst some put out the fire others helped three people down a ladder from the first floor, led one person to safety from the ground floor and, once the fire was extinguished, led a fifth person to safety down the stairwell.

Area Commander Dave Fothergill who joined the incident said : “This is another case of a fire being started in a bin kept at the bottom of a central stairwell which causes people to be trapped as this is their only escape route. Here the residents had done all the right things: they were alerted by smoke alarms and stayed behind closed doors which kept the smoke at bay until the Fire and Rescue Service arrived within minutes. However, setting fire to rubbish bins clearly puts people’s lives at risk in such situations. We are today carrying out a Fire Investigation with Police Scenes of Crime Officers but we believe it was deliberate

“The crews did a tremendous job in getting the fire under control and helping people to escape.”

*Further bin fires were reported later on that same morning at 08.34 in Harvey’s Hill, Bushmead Luton and again at 09.52 in Vincent Road.