Pensioners had to be evacuated from their Wolverhampton nursing home after a fire broke out in the laundry room.

Ten elderly residents from Wellesley House, on Penn Road, were led to safety by firefighters after towels left piled by a boiler sparked the blaze just after 10pm yesterday.

The fire spread to a main corridor at the two storey, 33 bed home before three fire crews – two from Wolverhampton and one from Bilston – brought them under control. They spent two hours at the scene.

Crew commander Simon Bevington said: “It broke out in the laundry room where some towels seemed to have been placed too close to a boiler.

“Everyone remained calm and the evacuation ran smoothly. The elderly people were a credit.”

Today the nursing home refused to comment.