ELDERLY people had to be evacuated from a sheltered housing scheme in Burnley after a cooker fire.

Two crews were called to Viking Place, off Cronkshaw Street, at around 11.45pm yesterday after a female resident making porridge left her pan on.

Watch manager Neil Ashworth, from Burnley fire station, said ‘several residents’ were evacuated for 30 minutes as firefighters put out the blaze.

He said: “An automatic alarm went off in the flats and the fire was put out by removing the food from the cooker.

“We will have a follow-up meeting next week just to talk to the residents about the dangers of cooking and hoow to stay safe.”

The pan and its contents were destroyed by the fire, while the flat suffered moderate smoke damage. Nobody was injured.