Burnham: Youngsters avert major blaze in Burnham (From Maldon and Burnham Standard)

Burnham: Youngsters avert major blaze in Burnham

1:46pm Saturday 4th August 2012 in Local News

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

Four crews were called to a shop in Station Road, Burnham, at about 11.30am this 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.

“These two boys deserve a great deal of credit, their quick thinking in alerting us to this fire saved the building.

"The shop was not currently trading and the fire appears to have started at the back of the building.

"We committed firefighters in breathing apparatus into the shop and they quickly got on top of the fire and prevented it from spreading.

"There was a real danger that the fire would get into the roof which would have not only severely damaged this shop but would, in all likelihood, have cause the fire to spread to the adjacent building.

"Crews professionalism and hard work in quickly containing the fire has saved not only this building but also those adjacent to it."