Burnham: Eagle-eyed children help thwart shop fire (From Maldon and Burnham Standard)

Burnham: Eagle-eyed children help thwart shop fire

9:00am Thursday 9th August 2012 in News By Emma Robinson

A fire chief has praised two youngsters whose quick thinking averted a major fire in Burnham.

Four crews were called to the Pet Shack, formerly Joyces, in Station Road, Burnham, at about 11.30am Saturday morning.

They spent an hour extinguishing the blaze and remained at the scene damping down and checking for hot spots.

An investigation will be carried out to establish the cause of the fire.

Assistant Divisional Officer Martin Hare said: “This fire could have caused widespread damage, not only to this shop but also the neighbouring property, if crews had not got on top of it as quickly and efficiently as they did.

“We were alerted to the fire by two young boys under the age of 10 who saw smoke coming out of the roof and had it not been for them spotting that smoke and calling us this incident could have been far worse."

See this week's MBS for the full story.