FIRE chiefs are warning residents not to leave cooking unattended following a spate of fires in Hartlepool.

Cleveland Fire Brigade’s Hartlepool district manager, Dave Turton believes it is only a matter of time before a member of the public or a firefighter is seriously injured or killed due to kitchen fires.

He said these fires can be prevented by people taking more care and not leaving their cooking unattended.

In the past two weeks there have been four fires across Hartlepool, caused by cooking. The latest one was a chip fan blaze at the weekend.

Mr Turton said: "It is extremely worrying that people are putting pans on the hob then leaving them allowing them to burn over and start fires.

"You wouldn’t light a fire in the middle of your room and walk away from it, which is essentially what some residents are doing.

"These warnings need to be taken seriously before someone gets hurt or worse.

"Please do not leave pans unattended, stop using old fashioned chip pans and have working smoke alarms on all floors in your property. These simple rules could save someone’s life."

In April, fire chiefs sent out a similar warning to residents in Stockton, following a spate of six cooking related incidents in just 14 days.

People are advised to get rid of old fashioned chip pans, if a pan catches fire evacuate the house, don’t try and fight the blaze and don’t leave pans on the heat when no-one is in the room.

Last year Cleveland Fire Brigade launched a hard-hitting Learn and Live Home Safety scheme in a bid to highlight how easily fires can spread in the home.

The initiative included emotional personal accounts from relatives of house fire victims and reports from firefighters on how they tackle blazes.

Government figures for the year 2006/07 show that Cleveland topped the league tables, with only three other fire and rescue services having had no accidental house fire deaths at all.

Cleveland Fire Brigade is offering free home fire safety visits for residents. For more information call 01429-874063.