Date: 17th February, 2022
A fire that destroyed a semi-detached house in Heytesbury, near Warminster, yesterday (16 February) started accidentally.
Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service was called to Greenlands in the village at 8.55am for reports of a property well alight.
At the height of the incident, crews were in attendance from Warminster, Westbury, Frome, Trowbridge, Salisbury (x2) and Shaftesbury, supported by the aerial ladder platform from Yeovil and an incident command unit from Devizes.
The occupants were alerted by the smoke alarm – a woman who was upstairs initially received fire survival guidance over the phone by a 999 operator in Fire Control, before being helped to escape via a window by a member of the public. A man was able to leave the property via the front door. Both were taken to hospital by South Western Ambulance Service as a precaution but were discharged later in the day.
Relief crews attended in the afternoon and evening from Calne, Bradford on Avon and Gillingham and continued to damp down and tackle hotspots, with the last firefighters leaving the scene by 10.30pm. A reinspection was carried out by a crew from Warminster this morning (17 February).
The fire is believed to have been caused by a fault in the oil-fired boiler, located in the ground floor kitchen of the house.
Group Manager Wayne Jones said: “Although the property was destroyed, the occupants were alerted to the fire by their smoke alarm, which almost certainly saved their lives.”
Information about smoke alarms can be found at www.dwfire.org.uk/smoke-alarms