Toddler starts fire after switching on cooker

A toddler sparked a kitchen fire by accidentally switching the cooker on before his mum took him into town.

Mum Bethany White didn’t think little one-year-old Jack was tall enough to reach the cooker dials and therefore thought it would be safe to leave it switched on at the wall.

But she was proved wrong when she returned to her second-floor flat in Wellesley Road last Thursday afternoon to find smoke billowing along the corridor.

An item being stored on the hob had caught light at about 1pm while she was out.

The 20-year-old said: “I went into town for 30 minutes and when I came back there was smoke everywhere.

“My friend and her child were with us so I told her to get the kids out while I went to see whether the smoke was coming from my flat.

“When I opened the door there was loads of smoke so I closed it, called 999 and got out.

“Jack has only just started walking. I didn’t think he could reach the cooker.

“It wasn’t a big fire, mainly just smoke, but I panicked a bit when I saw it.

“There’s only smoke damage and one of the sides has melted a bit but the housing association is going to see what they can do.”

Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus went into the building and put out the small fire.

A Kent Fire and Rescue Service spokesman said: “Luckily the home had working smoke alarms fitted.

“The mother did exactly the right thing, she shut the door on the fire as she left the property and got herself and the child out.”

The kitchen was slightly smoke damaged but the rest of the home was fine.

Bethany White with Jack