Good Samaritan praised after fire at Telford restaurant

BBC News

30-07-2025

The owner of a family-run restaurant in Shropshire said a Good Samaritan inadvertently saved her business.Tea towels caught fire inside Restaurant 1840 in Dawley, Telford, on Sunday morning, setting off a fire alarm.A nearby dog walker investigated, triggering the security alarm which alerted owner Jelly Tench, who was able to get to the building and put out the fire."There are so few people that would stop and try and do something in that moment," said Ms Tench.
"He thought they were the security alarms going off and he thought somebody was robbing the place, so he did come and make sure there was nothing he could do."Ms Tench started a social media campaign to try and find out who the man was in order to thank him.He has since been identified and she said he would be invited for a meal at the site which is based in a restored 19th Century former Methodist church."That single action, it stopped a church from burning down, we are so incredibly grateful for what he's done," she said."Just taking that moment out of his way has changed our lives."I have seen him quite a few times locally and he's such a polite and lovely man, and I don't know if he realises yet quite what a difference he made here, he saved our livelihoods and business."Ms Tench said she did not know what had caused the towels to go up in flames."There is no explanation, I was in the kitchen two hours after everything was turned off, there were no problems at all," she said."It's very scary to see how easily things can happen. It's a sharp reminder that actually you need to do your fire drills and your preparation as much as you can beforehand."
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