Hartlepool, Northeast England.
John Marsey and his cousin Darren Lines were frying some bread in Jenny Marsey’s kitchen on Sunday. When they left the kitchen to answer a knock at the door, they returned to find their meal had caught fire.
To the side of the cooker is a pile of washing in a basket. Lines grabbed the nearest thing from a pile of laundry to try and put it out which happend to be his aunt’s huge powder blue, size XL Granny Knickers.
Says Meryl Gardens resident Mrs Marsey, “My £4.99 parachute knickers have come in handy for something. We’ve had a good laugh that they were used as a fire blanket.”
She continues “When they found the pan on fire they did what most people do and panicked. But they found a pair of my granny knickers in a washing basket and basically used them as a fire blanket to put out the fire.”
“It could have been a lot worse,” she said. “My family could have been in hospital but the knickers saved the day. I’m just grateful to the boys.”
The fire official said the general principle of using a large, wet cloth to cover a grease fire was a sound one.
by 
