Mattress catches fire following cigarette ignition, in Broadstairs, UK - 1 injured

Firefighters from Margate and Thanet were called to a house in Percy Road, Broadstairs,UK, just before 8am on Monday the 20th of April 2009 after a neighbour who entered the house to fix a leak noticed there had also been a recent blaze. The fire had started the previous night when the 79-year-old woman living in the house was smoking in bed. When the fire took hold she dragged the matress through to the bathroom where the intensity of the blaze was so great that it spooled the tiles off the wall, cracked the porcelain sink and toilet cistern and caused the bathroom window to fail, melting the plastic window frame and shattering the glass. The pensioner was taken to Thanet hospital suffering smoke inhalation. Matt Deadman, Thanet’s Red Watch manager, said: “We’d advise people never to smoke in bed. Secondly, if you do experience a fire then leave the property, call the fire service and do not attempt to fight the fire yourself."