Workers escape fire at Malaysian high commission

ROSS GIBLIN/ The Dominion Post

LOOK WHILE YOU COOK: A kitchen fire at the Malaysian high commission in Brooklyn started after an unattended wok of oil on a stove caught fire

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Three women had to lower themselves from a second-storey window to escape a kitchen fire in the Malaysian high commission compound.

The fire started on a stove in one of the compound's accommodation blocks in Brooklyn, Wellington.

The ground floor of the building was well alight and the women staff members were lowering themselves from the upstairs window when fire engines arrived about 5.15pm yesterday.

Passing motorists saw smoke and drove to nearby Brooklyn Fire Station and "just sat on the doorbell", station officer Greg McFarlane said.

The women suffered smoke inhalation and were taken to hospital as a precaution.

"[One of the women] opened the door and was confronted by heavy black smoke and a lot of heat," Mr McFarlane said. "They were fairly distressed."

The fire started from an oil-filled wok on the stove and was a classic case of leaving cooking unattended, he said.

The women, who were upstairs watching television, thought they had turned the stove off, and were alerted to the fire by the smell. The only means of escape was through the upstairs window.

- © Fairfax NZ News