Gosport firefighters praise quick-thinking resident who saved neighbour from burning decorating sheets

Two engines from Gosport fire station attended the small fire in a two-storey block of flats in Jamaica Place, near Gosport town centre, at 9pm this evening.

A fire had begun to spread across some sheeting laid down for a decorating project the flat’s hallway – but fire crews arrived to find it extinguished thanks to the prompt action of a neighbour, who heard a smoke alarm going off.

Crew manager Alex Hay said: ‘(The resident) was a sleep and some sheeting caught fire – we think it was from a discarded cigarette.

‘The fire alarm sounded and a neighbour heard it and they managed to get through the front door.

‘The neighbour did a good job, and the working smoke alarm made it so we didn’t have a worse job on our hands.’

An ambulance also attended to check residents for smoke inhalation.

The flat suffered minor smoke damage, and no one was injured during the incident.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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