Bedroom and chimney fire hospitalises Wigan pensioners
Two people were taken to hospital and a road closed after smoke from a chimney blaze engulfed a Wigan farmhouse.
The flames from the chimney also burst through into an upstairs bedroom, causing a double emergency for the two fire crews from Wigan and one from Chorley which attended the incident on Back Lane in Appley Bridge, at around 7.30pm on Thursday January 23.
The flue was from a fire-lit stove in the kitchen and Wigan watch manager Mike Fairhurst said that some “degredation” of the chimney further up had caused it to catch light.
The flames then came through the wall of a bedroom and set fire to materials within it.
Four firefighters wearing breathing apparatus and using three hose reels were deployed.
Watch manager Fairhurst said: “It was a question of attacking the incident on two fronts: the bedroom fire internally and the chimney fire externally using a ladder.
"The house was heavily smoke-logged and we used a positive pressure fan to ventilate.”
He said there were three older occupants – two men and a woman – in the home when the fire broke out but they were safely evacuated before the emergency services arrived.
The woman and one of the men were taken to hospital for precautionary check-ups but no-one, thankfully, had come to serious harm.
Back Lane was closed to traffic for about two hours to provide scene safety.
Watch manager Fairhurst said that the main damage was caused to the kitchen ceiling and bedroom floor.