Getting up to take her son to school may well have saved a Bristol mum’s life, after her kitchen caught fire due to an electrical fault with her microwave. Vicky Watton from Little Stoke said if she’d had her planned lie-in that morning, it was likely the fire would have spread.
Speaking to Bristol Live Ms Watton said: “I wasn’t due to take my son to school, normally he takes the bus., but that morning I decided to take him. When I was coming home, I was also going to go to the shops, but after going around the traffic circle three times, I decided to go home.
“When I walked inside, there was black smoke everywhere and it was all ablaze. I was in there for a few minutes as I was so shocked.
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“I was lucky to have got home when I did, as I caught it at the start. If I’d been having a lie-in it’s likely I would not have heard anything as I have a sleep machine, or if I’d gone to the shops, the fire would have had time to spread.”
Seeing the flames in the kitchen, she quickly got out of the house. “I had to leave and call the neighbours to get out, they have two young children,” she added. As she alerted her neighbours to leave the building, she also called the fire service.
She said the fire service established the fire had started due to an electrical fault with her microwave. “The control panel on the microwave started it. We had not even used it that morning and it must have sparked while we were out," she added.
“I don’t know whether it was luck or a sixth sense when I decided to go home rather than to the shops, but the fire service showed me it had already reached the bottom of the boiler. Another three minutes and the whole place would have gone up."
Due to the smoke she had inhaled inside, Ms Watton said she suffered a massive asthma attack and was taken to hospital where it took another two hours for her to be stabilised. She spent a week in hospital, being discharged at the end of last week.
“I have lung problems and brittle asthma so I haven’t been able to go home yet due to the fire damage and smoke odour,” said Ms Watton, who has been staying with her mother.
Due to lung problems, she had an electric bed and other mobility adaptations in her home, which she does not have at her mother’s house. Ms Watton hopes to move home as soon as possible, nut her house has been deemed uninhabitable until various work has been carried out. A friend has started a GoFundMe page for Ms Watton and her two children to help her make the home habitable again.
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