Oil heater fire leaves bathroom at Wigan house severely damaged

Fire crews were called to the address on Devon Drive in Standish at around 10.50am on Monday.

They found the family living there had switched an old oil heater on in the bathroom and smelled smoke around 20 minutes later.

They opened the door to find the room heavily smoke-logged and the heater well ablaze.

A brave neighbour put water from the sink onto the flames before the fire crews thoroughly checked the bathroom to ensure there was no chance of the fire starting again when they arrived.

The family was unhurt but shaken and fire crews said they had a lucky escape.

Watch manager Carl Gleaves from Wigan fire station said: "When we arrived there was quite a serious amount of damage to the downstairs bathroom.

"We had to rip the majority of it out to make sure there was no further fire spread.

"This could have been a lot worse. We did not have as much to do as we might have due to the brave actions of the neighbour, even though we wouldn't recommend tackling a fire like that.

"The smoke alarms in the property did not work so we have installed fresh one."

The fire service also had a message for people using heaters to warm up their properties during the winter.

Mr Gleaves said: "If you have old heating appliances we recommend that if you are confident you can use them make sure someone's around and about to watch them, otherwise discard them and get new, more reliable ones."

Crews from Wigan and Horwich fire stations attended and were at the scene for around 30 minutes.

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