Man saves wife trapped by fire

A woman had to be rescued from a Shropshire house by her husband after a fire trapped her in the property.

Both needed hospital treatment for smoke inhalation following the blaze in Old St Martins Road, Gobowen, in the village yesterday.

The fire, which began in two caravans in a neighbouring driveway and was fanned by high winds, may have been started deliberately.

Neighbours said the flames were as high as the houses in the road as the caravans burned.

More than 24 firefighters from Shropshire and North Wales attended the scene during the incident at 7.40pm yesterday. They called out British Gas experts to deal with a gas leak.

Firefighters from Oswestry, Chirk, Ellesmere, Wrexham and Tweedale in Telford as well as an incident commander from Shrewsbury attended the scene.

Adrian Bowen, from Oswestry Fire Station, said: "It was a pretty serious fire and there was thick black smoke in the area when we arrived.

Treatment

"A female had been trapped but was rescued from the property by her husband prior to us arriving.

"Paramedics were called and they gave the couple treatment for smoke inhalation."

He said the fire was suspected to have been started in a car or a caravan.

"Above the house are three bedsit flats and we didn't know at the start how many people were trapped. As it turned out the female was in the property and there was nobody else," he said.

"During the fire there was a gas leak. We used ground monitoring equipment to try to find the problem and called out British Gas who dug up the road to isolate the leak."

Meanwhile, a woman in her 30s was rescued by fire crews after she fell asleep while a small blaze took hold in the kitchen of her Shrewsbury home last night. The fire service was alerted to the fire in Sparrow Lane by neighbours.

Steve Cox, from Shropshire fire and rescue service said: "It was just a small fire involving a frying pan which was quickly taken outside and a lady was found asleep so we woke her and led her to safety."

She refused hospital treatment.