Hasting man, 85, rescued from flash fire in kitchen: ‘Good neighbours and smoke alarms save lives’

• Hastings man, Peter Murton, 85, was saved from a flash fire by his neighbour.
• Peter’s sons, local firemen Kevin and Paul Morton, had equipped his home with multiple smoke alarms which alerted the neighbour.
• Kevin and Paul say the combination of working smoke alarms and a good relationship with their dad’s neighbour helped him leave the home with just a few painful burns, rather than costing him his life.

An elderly Hastings man was saved from a kitchen fire by his neighbour, who was alerted to the emergency thanks to smoke alarms.

Peter Murton, 85, lives alone in Raureka. Last Wednesday he was cooking his dinner of sweetcorn fritters when suddenly the pan he was using got too hot and caused a flash fire.

Fortunately, Peter’s sons are both local firemen, Kevin Murton is a station officer at the Hastings Fire Station and Paul Murton is a senior station officer at Haumoana Fire Station.

Both of them had kitted out Peter’s home with multiple, loud smoke alarms – which can be purchased at any hardware store.

“It’s probably better with the elderly to have as many as you can get in different areas,” Kevin said.

“Look on the Fire and Emergency website and they’ll tell you the best [smoke alarms] to buy and where to put them and where not to put them, but with elderly people you’ve also got to remember with their hearing – if they haven’t got hearing aids in and stuff like that,” Paul said.

Kevin and Paul see kitchen fires like this frequently in their line of work. Most start when cooking is unattended but this one started with their father right by the pan.

With the fire burning and several smoke alarms screaming, Peter first rushed to his hot water cupboard to grab some tea towels to try and smother the fire. Unfortunately, he forgot to wet them first so when he placed them over the fire the towels added fuel.

“Wet tea towels is the answer or a chopping board on top so that it covers the pan, and don’t lift it off. Ring 111 and let them come and have a look at it, let it cool down, and take it off the element,” Kevin said.

The aftermath of the kitchen fire at Peter Murton's home. Photo / Kevin Murton

Peter wasn’t too worried about the fire growing in front of him and stood there battling it with everything at his disposal. That’s when his neighbour heard the alarms, smelt the smoke, and saw the orange glow of the fire.

“It never worried me, a fire. Then the neighbour, he came to the front which was open and he came out and he kicked me out,” Peter said.

“Thanks to a bit of swearing and coaxing,” laugh Kevin and Paul.

Peter’s neighbour had only moved in six months earlier and Kevin and Paul believe that their father bringing over food and having a good relationship with them helped save their father’s life.

“I was talking to one of the firemen, he was the one who’d come in the door first and he said it was orange rolling and he just quickly came in and belted it and gave it a couple of good squirts and came back out the door and he said it was millimetres away from going up and taking the whole house,” Paul said.

Kevin said one moral of the story was to get to know your elderly family member’s neighbours if they live alone, so they’re aware of the situation.

“Good neighbours and smoke alarms save lives,” Kevin said.

Although Peter’s kitchen will need replacing and he has a few painful burns, he is still able to move around and still loves cooking sweetcorn fritters.

“He had them on Sunday,” Kevin said.

“Yeah, and I enjoyed them too,” Peter said.

Jack Riddell is a multimedia journalist with Hawke’s Bay Today and spent the last 15 years working in radio and media in Auckland, London, Berlin, and Napier. He reports on all stories relevant to residents of the region, along with pieces on art, music, and culture.