Man taken to hospital after kitchen fire in Carluke

Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) crews from the town and Lanark were sent to the incident in Whitehill Crescent in response to a 999 call made shortly after 7pm.

Firefighters reached the scene around six minutes later to find a fire within the kitchen of the property.

The incident commander, Watch Manager Thomas Mitchell, said: “We immediately committed two firefighters in breathing apparatus and they used a high pressure jet to extinguish the fire.

Oxygen therapy was provided to a man who appeared to be suffering from the effects of breathing in smoke and we requested an ambulance attend.

He was passed to the care of paramedics while our crews confirmed the fire was fully extinguished by cutting away and using a thermal imaging camera to check for any hidden fire spread.

An ambulance took the casualty, who hs not been named, to Wishaw General Hospital for a precautionary check-up and SFRS crews left the scene around 8:20pm.

More fires begin in the kitchen than in any other room of the home and firefighters, with unattended cooking appliances a common cause of incidents.

The advice from SFRS is never to step away from a cooker without first removing any pots and pans from the heat and making sure the hob and grill are switched off.

Householders can also help protect their homes and everyone in them by having a heat alarm installed in the kitchen, where the devices provide early warning of a fire without being activated due to small amounts of smoke from cooking.

Free home fire safety visits are available from SFRS by calling the freephone number 0800 073 1999, by texting FIRE to 80800 or by filling in an online form at www.firescotland.gov.uk.