Elderly woman escapes blaze

Tuesday 31st August 2010, 11:30AM BST.

A pensioner was recovering in hospital today after fleeing a blaze which ripped through her home in the Black Country.

Firefighters were called to a semi-detached property in Commonside, Pensnett at around 10pm last night.

The woman, named locally as 82-year-old Gretta Bunn, had managed to get out of the house before fire crews arrived and was taken to Russells Hall Hospital for treatment.

Firefighters from Dudley and Brierley Hill used eight hose reel jets to put out the blaze which they said had destroyed all of the first floor and three quarters of the ground floor of the house.

Fire investigators were due at the house today to try and establish the cause of the blaze.

The fire also spread to an adjoining property causing damage to the loft space, bathroom and bedroom. The occupants were out at the time.

The pensioner’s friend Sidney Fryer, 91, said she was recovering in hospital today. He said: It’s devastating what’s happened to her.”

View more: Dudley news, Pensnett news.