A FOREST couple have issued a plea for people to be more aware of the risk of fire after a kitchen blaze threatened to destroy their home.

Linda Hutchinson had left a frying pan unattended at her home in Parkend for just a few minutes when it caught fire.

Husband Terry managed to bring the fire under control by throwing wet tea towels

over the flames which reached up the ceiling and out several feet from the cooker into the kitchen.

Fire engines from Coleford and Lydney responded to the emergency call from Wood­land Road last Wednesday (November 2).

Mrs Hutchinson said: “We just want to make people aware of the danger from fire. Until it happens to you, you don’t appreciate just how devastating it can be.

“We wouldn’t want anyone to have to go through what we went through.”

Although a relatively ‘minor’ fire, much of the kitchen, part of the lounge and a bedroom were damaged by smoke.

Mrs Hutchinson said: “I was in the kitchen and I had the frying pan on when Terry called me.

“I went in and then we heard a crackling sound – when we went back to the kitchen the pan was on fire. It was terrifying.”

Mr Hutchinson added: “I got some wet tea towels and threw them onto the flames to douse the fire.”

The couple estimate it was less than five minutes between hearing the crackling sound and the flames being extinguished.

Mrs Hutchinson said: “It went up so quickly it was unbelievable. If Terry hadn’t extinguished the flames we could have lost our home or our lives.

“That is why we want people to be aware of the risk. We didn’t think it would happen to us but it did.”

Mr Hutchinson said their insurance company had been “excellent” and had offered to put them up in a hotel but they spent several days with their son, Paul, in Pillowell.

He added: “You shouldn’t leave anything unattended in the kit­chen. It took no time at all to cause a large amount of damage and it could have been worse.”