Dog rescued as blaze threatens to burn down Canterbury cottage
Brian Munnery inspects the damage with rescued dog
Jim
by Jamie
Bullen
A pet dog has been rescued by
firefighters after a fierce blaze threatened to burn down a
cottage.
Brian and Anne Munnery, of Pett Hill,
Bridge, near Canterbury, phoned 999 at 8pm yesterday after Mr
Munnery tried to light a fire without knowing he was using a gas
bottle with a perished pipe.
The blaze broke out in his chimney and
was worsened when the 73-year-old kicked the leaking bottle into
the fire in an effort to contain the flames.
Canterbury fire crews wore breathing
masks to tackle the blaze and rescue Jim, the couple's six-year-old
collie, from the back office.
Brian paid tribute to his wife Anne,
75, describing her as a "saviour" for alerting emergency services
despite suffering from Parkinson's disease for the past 12
years.
He said: "She came through from the kitchen and I said 'Get
out of the house because we have a major fire'.
"It was like she came to life again;
she absolutely was the saviour."
Mr Munnery said his misguided actions
in trying to douse the flames led to the arrival of fire crews.
He added: "I thought if I kicked the
gas canister onto the grate or a hard surface the flames would go
up the chimney but it was a bit more fierce than that.
"The fire is just one of those things.
I'm always injuring myself because I think I can deal with it.
"I got my eyebrows and my hair singed.
My wife is the sensible one.
"Another 15 minutes and the house
would have burned down. The fire crews were absolutely
brilliant."
Watch manager Sheridan Hudson-Peacock
said: "There was no serious damage to the property. Just some
furniture was destroyed and the room was smoke-logged. The good
news is we rescued a dog.
"The couple said they have two dogs,
we went in and found one and the other had managed to get himself
outside. We managed to find him later.
"Unfortunately he [Mr Munnery] was
trying to light an open fire with a gas bottle but the pipe on the
bottle had perished. He kicked the gas bottle and it could have
been nasty.
"He kept returning inside the house
four or five times, but when there is a fire you get out, stay out
and call us."
Crews left the home at about
9.30pm.
19/12/12
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