By Jennie Matthew
THE Fire Department yesterday issued stern warnings on avoiding domestic fires after a family home was gutted in a devastating blaze on Sunday.
The Psevdas home was reduced to ashes. Fire officers say the blaze may have been caused by a short-circuit in a fuse. The house was uninsured and the single-parent family is now ruined, facing losses of well over £60,000.
Police and fire fighters estimate that the blaze started in the sitting room at around noon on Sunday.
The mother was upstairs making the beds and her five-year-old son was alone in the front room.
The Fire Brigade was only called at 12.30pm and the first fire engine was on the scene 18 minutes later, screeching its way 19 kilometres from Kofinou, through two villages to Psevdas.
Some 12 fire fighters and four engines managed to extinguish the flames by 1.21pm, but it was too late to save the house.
In less than 90 minutes, the house had been reduced to ash and rubble.
” It’s close to a miracle, bearing in mind the distance that the engine got there so quickly,”said Fire Brigade spokesman Chrysilios Chrysiliou.
In their haste to evacuate the building, mother and child left windows and doors wide-open.
The flames engulfed the home in minutes, aided by the wooden floorboards and panelling and the flammable soft furnishings, which unleashed toxic chemicals.
Shutting doors to seal off the supply of oxygen and non-flammable soft furnishings would have minimised the damage, Chrysiliou said yesterday.
And he warned people to make sure matches, cigarettes and lighters did not accidentally set fire to bedding, upholstery or carpets, pleading with parents to keep them well out of reach of children.
Portable heaters, open fires, electric blankets and cooking accidents are also frequent sources of devastating fires.
The Fire Department estimates there are around 200 chip pan fires every year, and that more than 50 per cent of fire victims are aged over 60.
Short circuits can be prevented by not over-loading electric sockets. Trying to force too much electricity out of one power point causes the wires to heat up, which can cause near-by flammable substances to self- ignite.
Similarly damaged or faulty wires and electrical appliances can shoot out sparks, which can set fire to neighbouring flammable objects, or self- ignite if there is a problem with the machine.
Also on Sunday, two people were treated for smoke inhalation after a fire broke out on in a flat in Nicosia from a forgotten frying pan.
The owner of the flat at Aspres refugee estate, Despo Neophytou passed out after inhaling smoke but was rescued by her neighbour Michalakis Georgiades who put out the fire.
Georgiades, who suffered inhalation problems, was treated in hospital and discharged.
The fire service said the blaze was caused by a frying pan left on the lit stove.
Damage to the flat was estimated at £500.
