WOK FIRE: Cooking disaster leads to evacuation of Opal Court

Firefighters were called to Opal Court after a cooking disaster lead to a potentially catastrophic wok fire.

The fire caused smoke and heat damage to the student accommodation on Lancaster Road – just across the road from the station.

Crews arrived on the scene at around 11.20pm on Saturday and fought the fire by hoisin’ it out in the kitchens – before returning to the station around midnight.

One Opal Court resident and Chemistry fresher, who witnessed the shocking scenes, told The Tab:

“The flat was in the fire above ours. There were fire-fighters, at least four trucks full- dealing with the situation, police and the ambulance service were on standby.

“While all this was happening on the floor above my flat I was in my bedroom about to doze off to sleep. I didn’t know there was a fire, as the fire alarm in my flat didn’t go off.”

The incident, which wok’d the student accommodation, was only discovered by our anonymous fresher when he went to investigate.

He said: “As I opened the door leading to the staircase, we were greeted by a 6ft firefighter bellowing ‘Get out! Evacuate the building!’. I was surprised.

“When we told him there were still people here he told us to get them out of their flats. We started to bang on the flats and bedroom doors of those on our floor, telling people to evacuate.”

The displaced freshers gathered outside, presumably going stir crazy, while fire fighters fought the blaze.

Outside Opal Court

Moral of the story? Stick with the microwave meals and leave the cooking to the professionals.