Flat blaze caused by a burning ambition

A BLAZE destroyed a kitchen after a four-year-old tried to toast a piece of plastic on Friday.

Little Ryan Pearson was playing in the family kitchen when he decided to try to make a piece of toast.

But instead of using a slice of bread, the mischievous four-year-old took a plastic fridge magnet, popped it in the toaster, and pulled down the lever.

And in place of burnt bread, Ryan's mother Nicola, 27, was left with a blackened kitchen as flames a foot high rose from the burning toaster.

Miss Pearson, who lives in Brunswick Gardens, Hainault, with Ryan, said: "I was sitting in the living room and I smelt smoke at about 6.45pm.

"I went in the kitchen and flames were coming out of the toaster.

"I managed to flick the off switch and called the fire brigade.

"They said the fire had taken hold really quickly. We were really lucky that it hadn't spread to the rest of the flat.

"Ryan told the firemen that he put the plastic magnet in the toaster.

"I didn't know he could reach as high as the toaster." Now, after thick, black smoke covered the flat's walls and flames have scorched the kitchen and melted the fridge, mother and son are now living with Miss Pearson's mother in Fencepiece Road, Chigwell, while the kitchen is being renovated.

"When we got to my mother's house Ryan was shaking," Miss Pearson said. "He kept saying my mum's got no toaster and the kitchen's black." Warning other parents of the dangers of mixing kitchen appliances and little children, Miss Pearson said: "You just don't think that plugged-in kitchen appliances can be so dangerous.

"It is important to keep these things out of children's reach and to switch the things off."

Miss Pearson has no idea when she will be able to return to her fire-ravaged home.

13:23 Thursday 9th January 2003

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