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Zoe Ball has described the terrifying moment firefighters rushed to her house after she accidentally left a candle burning there when nobody was home.
The BBC Radio 2 presenter recalled the nail-biting incident on today’s Zoe Ball Breakfast Show.
Zoe, 52, revealed that the fire brigade came to her house “for the first time”, leaving her BBC colleagues shocked.
“I had left a candle burning in the lounge,” she admitted, “I was so obsessed with The Matrix and the fact that I had made a cake on Sunday night, I had gone to bed and hadn’t blown out one of the candles.”
She continued: “It was left smouldering in the lounge and at 9.25am my smoke alarms went off and thank goodness… Because otherwise I might have gone home to no home!”
Zoe then went on to thank her neighbours for raising the alarm and the fire department for putting out the candle.
“They stopped my house from burning down; they are absolute legends,” Zoe confirmed.
“I popped by to give them some cake yesterday to say thank you very much.”
Zoe went on to reveal that one of the firefighters, Steve, who stopped a blaze from spreading through her home is retiring today after 30 years of service.
She also said that firefighting boss Duncan implored Zoe to tell her listeners: “Your local fire and rescue service can provide you with free smoke alarms, so if you have pals who, like me, burn candles, you’ve got to get your smoke alarms.”
Zoe also warned listeners to “check the batteries” on their smoke alarms and thanked the fire brigade once more.
Zoe and her partner Michael Reed moved house back in February, swapping out their cottage in Ditchling, East Sussex, for new digs in Lewes.
The BBC presenter was previously married to famous DJ Fatboy Slim between 1999 and 2016, and the pair share two children: Woody, 22, and Nelly, 12.
The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show airs weekdays at 6.30am on BBC Radio 2.
