RESIDENTS have been reminded to be vigilant around fireplaces this winter, following a near miss at a home in Allanson last week. 
Christy Kearsley woke to a bedroom full of smoke after a hot coal fell from the fireplace and ignited an oven mitt on the fireguard. 
Ms Kearsley said her partner, Ace Matthews, had returned from night shift at about 6am and stoked the fire, unaware that the coal had escaped. Half-an-hour later, Ms Kearsley said she was woken by smoke alarms. 
“I opened my eyes and the room was filled with smoke - it was like fog,” she said. 
The source was an oven mitt used to open the hot fireplace door. 
“The pot mitt was on fire, there were flames,” she said. 
“So I opened the front door and threw it outside.”
Ms Kearsley said when she ran outside, her partner - who was in the games room - could tell something was wrong and came inside to help open all the windows. 
“It was lucky the fire didn’t spread because I had my kids’ school clothes hanging near the fire as well,” she said. 
“And my son’s bedroom isn’t far away. 
“We also usually have our firewood stacked near the fire, so it was lucky that it wasn't there.” 
Ms Kearsley said she and her partner have now taken steps to ensure it will not happen again. 
“There are no more pot mitts and we are extra vigilant,” she said. 
“We recently moved into the house and part of moving in was checking the fire alarms. 
“If the fire alarm hadn’t gone off, it would have been closer to 7am when my partner came to bed and saw the smoke. 
“It could’ve been much worse.” 
Ms Kearsley said she encourages people to be vigilant, even with heaters.
A few years ago, she said a heater almost caught fire because it was plugged into a power board, rather than the wall or an extension cord. 
“Be vigilant that coal doesn’t fall out of the fireplace and watch what you have around the fireplace,” she said. 
“It can happen so easily.”