Wednesday, January 02, 2008

This is England . . .


From today's Guardian:

A large pair of knickers saved the day in northern England after they were used to smother a household kitchen fire.

Jenny Marsey's size 18-20 cotton briefs were used to put out a frying pan fire, which started when an extractor fan fell on the cooker while her son and nephew were frying some bread at the house in Hartlepool.

Her son John, 18, at first made the blaze worse by throwing water over the flames, but her nephew, Darren Lines, saved the day by grabbing his aunt's knickers from the washing pile and using them like a fire blanket.

Lines, 23, said: "I just grabbed the knickers, put them under the tap to dampen them and then used them to put the fire out.

"The extractor fan had fallen on top of the oven and then all the flames went up. The electricity had gone off and we couldn't see. It was just the first thing I picked up."

Marsey, 53, a baker, was out for a pub meal when the accident happened on Sunday afternoon.

"I think it's funny now but at the time I was just shell-shocked," she said. "I couldn't believe it when I found out how they stopped it."

Maresy said the blue cotton knickers were from Marks & Spencer, and were a few years old.

"I call them my emergency ones," said the mother of four. "They're the ones you wear when you've run out of all your others!"

5 comments:

Jay said...

Emergency knickers, indeed!

Did she have to pose with them, though?

Andrew said...

I dread to think what she will do now when she runs out of all her other knickers. I strongly suspect that "out for a pub meal" is a euphemism for "getting plastered."

Dave said...

I'll be going out for a pub meal later today.

Joe said...

Man, Dave, that would've never worked with those leopard print thongs you wear.

Mike said...

A pub meal is sounding pretty damn good right now.