8:43am Thursday 18th March 2010
By Richard Harris
A FAMILY had a lucky escape when a fire broke out in the roof of their home.
The blaze took hold at about 9.30pm on Tuesday at the house in Brayton Lane, Selby.
Barry Martland, watch manager at Selby Fire Station, said the alarm was raised when the family heard a crackling noise. At first they thought it was birds on the roof, but then they smelled smoke.
Mr Martland said when the two fire crews from Selby arrived at the property they found the mother and two teenage children were out of the house while the father had climbed a ladder and was using a hosepipe to pour water on to the roof.
Mr Martland said: “I sent two lads up using breathing apparatus and we had to rip the ceiling down in a bedroom to get to the seat of the fire. I also got a team taking slates off the roof so we could fight the fire from above and below to try to contain it.”
Mr Martland said there was quite a lot of damage to the roof void caused by the fire and the bedroom ceiling would need repairing.
The fire brigade left the scene just after midnight yesterday. But Mr Martland said: “It could have been a lot worse if it had been in the wee small hours when they were asleep. Whether they would have noticed it when they were asleep I don’t know.” Immediately after the house fire, Selby firefighters were called to the telephone exchange in Camblesforth.
The building was filled with diesel smoke due to problems with a generator.
Two firefighters wearing breathing equipment were sent into the building and turned off the generator.
They left the matter in the hands of a British Telecom engineer.
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