A KITCHEN was badly damaged by a chip pan blaze at a Crosland Moor house.
The man living at the house on Sandene Avenue had been using a wallpaper stripper on Saturday afternoon which kept triggering the smoke detector.
He then stopped for his tea and put the chip pan on his oven.
But he then got distracted continuing his work and the alarm was triggered again just after 6pm– but this time by the pan of boiling oil overheating and catching fire.
Neighbours spotted smoke pouring from his kitchen window and banged on the door to alert the man.
He put a damp cloth over the pan to douse the flames, but the fire had already spread to the extractor fan and overhead kitchen units.
It was doused by crews from Huddersfield fire station.
Watch commander Chris Bell said: “It just shows the dangers of ignoring smoke detectors.
“The man did the right thing in the way he dealt with the pan and then closed the kitchen door to stop the smoke spreading through the house but the kitchen was badly damaged by fire, heat and smoke.’’
Firefighters discovered that one of the man’s smoke detectors was not working and so replaced it.
They have also visited other homes in the area to carry out safety checks.
