AN APPEAL to drinkers to stop cooking chips when returning home after a night out has been made by fire officer.

The plea follows a 999 emergency call in the early hours of Saturday morning to a house in Elms Vale Road, Dover, where one of the occupants had to be rescued by crews wearing breathing apparatus.

Sub officer Ray Harney said: "We don’t want to stop people going out and having a good time, but our message is not to even think about getting out the chip pan while under the influence of alcohol.

"Unfortunately there are those who tend to fall asleep and leave the cooker unattended."

The house was rewired on Friday with a new smoke alarm system and most people had already evacutated the building before firefighters arrived.

Mr Harney added: "It was a big house divided into bedsits and we found out a chip pan had been unattended, which set the alarms off."

Crews wearing breathing apparatus searched the building and found one person being sick in a toilet after swallowing smoke.

Two firefighters walked him to fresh air and he was given oxygen. After an examination by ambulance crews the man was given the all-clear.

After firefighters ventilated the building the occupants returned to their bedsits. The room where the chip pan caught alight was not badly damaged.