Praise for firefighters after fire at Skegness guest house

Crews attended The Oakley guest house in Drummond Road this morning after smoke from the pan that had boiled dry set off the alarms.

Alan Taylor said: “We were halfway to Louth when my partner, Ann Brown, remembered she might have left the pan on the stove.

“We cook from fresh here and the pan contained mince for tonight’s evening meal.

“Then the phone rang and we immediately knew what it was about – it was a neighbour telling me the fire alarms were going.

“I told him what had happened and asked him to phone the fire brigade, and we did too.

“I thought we’d get back in time because the stove was only on low. My concern was naturally for my two guests – one a man in his eighties - but I knew they had gone out for the day.

“The Fire Brigade was here when we got back. The pan is now in the back yard and the only damage to the property is the smell of smoke.

“We were really lucky. Fortunately, the guests were still out when we got back. There are three floors here and if the guest house had gone up and the guests had come back it could have been a different story.”

Mr Taylor, who moved to the guest house from Nottingham 10 years ago, said: “We had a new fire alarm installed after we came here, which is regularly checked. Fortunately our fire doors did their job and the smoke didn’t affect upstairs.

“A good clean-up and a couple of cans of air freshioner should get rid of the smell of smoke.

“My partner has gone out to the butchers and the meal will be cooked ready for tonight’s guests.

“But there is a message here for everyone who has a busy life – check things are off before you go out!”

Lincolnshire Fire and rescue have confirmed they attended the fire in a Tweet at 11.13am. It said: “Crews from Skegness and Wainfleet attended a cooking pan fire on Drummond Road, Skegness. Extinguished by crews removing from heat source.”