FIRE crews battled a house blaze in Abermule which began in a bedroom.

On Saturday, February 1, crews from Newtown, Montgomery and Welshpool were called a property fire in Abermule that evening.

The occupants of the house had been enjoying the rugby in the upstairs living room, which was next to a bedroom. After the match, the occupants had gone downstairs to make a cup of tea.

About 30 minutes later, they heard the upstairs smoke alarm sounding and went to investigate and discovered that a small fire had started in the corner of the bedroom and both the bedroom and landing were thick with smoke.

One of the occupants attempted to tackle the fire with a fire extinguisher but the heavy smoke was too much. One of the other occupants had called the Fire Service who arrived within minutes.

On arrival, the crews were faced with a fire located in an upstairs bedroom which was extinguished. Crews used breathing apparatus, three hose reel jets and two thermal imaging cameras. There was significant fire damage to the bedroom and smoke damage to the remainder of the house.

Thankfully, the occupants were unharmed in the incident and have credited the fact that they had working smoke alarms in the property that potentially saved their lives.

One of the occupants said: “For us to leave the living room or any of the other two bedrooms to get downstairs we need to go past the bedroom that caught fire. If we did not have working smoke alarms and the fire started while we were in any of the upstairs rooms, we would not be alive today.”

The room in which the fire started was being used as storage and the door was closed during the time of the fire, containing the fire. The cause of the fire has been established and was due to a faulty electrical appliance.

Neil Evans, the Investigating Fire Officer for the Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service said: “It is incidents like this that highlight the importance of having working smoke alarms and to have a clear escape route in the unfortunate event of a fire.

"It is also worth having a night-time routine which involves checking all electrical appliances, unplugging those not in use or not designed to be left on and making sure doors are closed.”

For free safety advice on how to reduce the risk of fire in your home, please contact 0800 169 1234 to request a Safe and Well visit. The fire service will also provide valuable information and advice to safeguard your family in the unfortunate event of a fire.