Firefighters were called to a house on Monday, January 20 to extinguish a blaze in the Tunbridge Wells area, after an electrical fault set one of the bedrooms upstairs on fire. Fire crews were called shortly before 12:30pm to the Erskine Park Road where the electrical fault was reported to have caused a fire to break out and set a wardrobe full of clothes alight. The team was wearing breathing apparatus and tackled the flame with the use of a hose reel jet before finally removing the smoke from the smoke-filled property with a positive ventilation fan.

Watch manager Robert Gardner said: “We believe the fire started after an electrical fault in the bedroom caused clothing in a wardrobe to catch alight. The first floor of the property was heavily smoke logged and around 30 per cent of the bedroom was damaged by fire. Although the smoke alarm alerted the resident to what was going on there was a delay in it sounding due to it being fitted at an angle above the stairs.”

“Thankfully the occupant was able to get out unharmed but given the large amount of smoke it could have been far more serious if the family had been asleep upstairs when the clothes caught alight. We recommend that smoke alarms are always fitted on the ceiling and preferably in the middle of a room or hallway. While the occupier on this occasion was unaware of the fault I would also encourage anyone who has concerns regarding the electrical installation in their home to contact a qualified electrician as soon as possible,” said Gardner.

Fire-fighters are made aware that it is vital to pull electricity meters early because if sprayed water and electricity come together it becomes extremely dangerous and the results can be fatal.  Jack Traylor stated, "I really hate my guys being inside homes when the power is still on. That's why we try to quickly as we can get the meter pulled or else get Water & Light in route."