Fires

The fire service came to my house the other week. No, I wasn’t rescued in dramatic firemen lift style-e.
Cheshire Fire And Rescue Service were going door-to-door fitting smoke alarms.
The idea is that fire services should be proactive not reactive – they should do more to safeguard against a fire than rescue people in the event of one.
So one fireman put up two smoke alarms in my house. One went at the top of the stairs and one went at the bottom. All free of charge, no batteries to change and quite-importantly not likely to go off if I overcook my tea.

The other fireman helped me plan an emergency exit route. I will only have to break out of my bedroom window and shimmy down the drainpipe IF there’s a fire AND it’s on the stairs AND i start to feel hot. Each door in my house buys me 30 minutes apparently. But we all know the TV adverts and roles, Get out, stay out ring the fire brigade out.
How sad it is then that in Cheshire and Staffordshire recently there has been so many fires.

In Eccleshall an elderly man died in his cottage.
In Cheddleton, an elderly sister died after her clothing caught light from the open fire in the home she shared with her sister.

Last night, there was a fire in Walthall Street, Crewe and the road by my house was cordoned off.
The corner shop – the blue one – was so badly damaged that firefighters – were not allowed to go into the building for fear of it coming down on top of them.
I’ll go home that way tonight and have a look at what’s happening. And see if I can add a picture.

Today, I also learned of the terrible story of Ghazala Yasin who set fire to herself because she thought her husband was having an affair.

Then , I turn to the front page of the local rag and found that a man is standing trial at Stafford Crown Court for murder of his wife by setting their home on fire with her in it.
The Alan Stead trial is expected to last a long time.