AN elderly and partially blind woman was treated for smoke inhalation after escaping from a kitchen fire at her Worthing home.
The woman, in her 80s, realised the cooker was on fire in the kitchen of her house in Lansdowne Close just after 2pm yesterday (Wednesday, October 8). She closed the kitchen door and managed to get outside and call the fire service.
Firefighter Steve Robinson said: "When we arrived, the woman was outside and smoke was billowing from the ground floor."
Two crews from Worthing fire station went inside the house and found the kitchen full of flames. The fire had started after something left on the cooker's hob caught alight.
Crew commander Robinson said: "Because she had closed the door, it did confine the fire to the kitchen, but there was still a lot of damage. She did not have a smoke alarm which would have alerted her a lot sooner."
The kitchen was 80 per cent damaged by heat and smoke and 15 per cent of the rest of the house was damaged by smoke.
The elderly woman was given oxygen by the firefighters before paramedics arrived. She was not taken to hospital.
Firefighters spent around 40 minutes at the scene. The fire is being treated as accidental.
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