Doreen saves the day in Telford fire drama

A restaurant worker was today hailed a heroine for saving her brother's home after a fire broke out at the property in Telford.

Doreen McGowan, who works in the Shropshire Star staff restaurant at Ketley, spotted smoke when she popped round to her brother Noel's house in Leegomery yesterday and called the fire brigade.

Mr McGowan, his wife Suzanne and their 22-year-old twin sons James and Daniel were out at the time and no-one was injured in the blaze which broke out just before 2pm.

The living room of the detached home in Redwing Close was badly damaged by the fire and the whole house was smoke-damaged.

"Doreen is a heroine, she saved the house," said Mr McGowan.

"We wouldn't have been back until much later and it would have been much, much worse.

"There is a lot of wood in the living room and there's extensive fire damage, and the whole building has smoke damage."

Two fire crews and an operations officer from Wellington were called and were still on the scene several hours later to try to find the cause of the fire.

Mr McGowan said the officers believed the fire started accidentally.

Mrs McGowan said the firefighters had told her the damage was worse than it would have been had all the internal doors been shut.

She said: "The living room is a disaster but, because we leave all the doors open for the cat, the smoke has damaged every room.

"They told me leaving the doors open just lets oxygen in to feed the flames.

"If it hadn't been for Doreen we would have had no house by now."

The family have not been able to assess the full extent of the damage yet but the house was insured.

By Ann Clarkson