Mum, son and puppy rescued from burning Portsmouth flat after tumble dryer catches fire
A MUM and son along with their puppy were rescued from a burning flat by firefighters after a tumble dryer caught fire.
The traumatised woman was taken to safety from her ground floor apartment at Dymond House on Gisors Road, Milton, after the blaze ignited around 1.30pm.
Fire crews from Cosham and Southsea attended the incident, which saw the female ingest smoke as the home was left ‘badly damaged’.
Paramedics checked over the lady at the scene who did not need any further treatment.
Her son and the eight-week-old puppy were both unharmed.
Stephen Olchin, crew manager of Cosham Fire Station, said: ‘The fire involved a tumble dryer which caught fire, though we can’t speculate how it started.
‘Those inside had to evacuate with the lady needing assistance from our crew manager Stuart Langdon, who gave her oxygen after she had ingested smoke.
‘She was helped from the balcony after being in shock. Incidents like this where your home goes up in flames can have a massive impact on people.
‘The flat was badly damaged - they won’t be able to live there for a while.’
The fire was extinguished by 3pm.
Mr Olchin, offering fire safety advice to the public, said tumble dryers can catch fire for a ‘number of different reasons’ and urged people not to use them when asleep or when they go out.
He also suggested people should not remove batteries from smoke alarms to put into toys given to children at Christmas.
Neither of these scenarios occurred in this incident, though.