Careless cooking started a fire which filled a kitchen with smoke, forcing students to evacuate flats.

The blaze, in Forest Road in Greenstead, Colchester, started in an oil pan after it was left unattended on a cooker.

Flames from it wrecked a cooker hood and caused smoke damage to the entire kitchen.

A smoke detector was set off, the flats were evacuated and two fire crews from Colchester fire station were called.

Firefighters, alerted at about 9.20pm yesterday, used breathing apparatus and hosereels to put out the fire.

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Published Wednesday, February 16, 2005

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