8:48am Friday 19th March 2010
By Richard Harris
A MOTHER and son were rescued from a flat in Selby after a chip-pan caught fire.
The fire broke out at a maisonette on the first and second floors of a building in Millgate, Selby, at 9.50pm, on Wednesday.
When the town’s firefighters arrived they found a Polish man in his 20s leaning out of a second-floor window shouting for help.
Barry Martland, watch manager at Selby Fire Station, said two firefighters were sent to rescue the man, while a crew wearing breathing apparatus broke down the door to the maisonette.
Mr Martland said: “We went up to the first floor and rescued his mother. He was on the top floor in his bedroom and she was on the first floor in her bedroom. His mother was actually unaware there was a fire.”
Firefighters had to hold the man back as he tried to run into the burning building to rescue his mother, unaware she was already safe.
Because of the confusion, which was caused by the language barrier, firefighters went back into the building and searched each room to make sure there was no one else was trapped.
Mr Martland estimated the fire been burning for at least an hour.
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