A WHOLE floor of a tower block became smoke logged after a fire started in a chip pan in the caretaker's flat.St Francis Court in Franciscan Way, Ipswich, was sealed off and the road was closed while six fire vehicles dealt with the blaze, which was reported at about 5.

A WHOLE floor of a tower block became smoke logged after a fire started in a chip pan in the caretaker's flat.

St Francis Court in Franciscan Way, Ipswich, was sealed off and the road was closed while six fire vehicles dealt with the blaze, which was reported at about 5.40pm.

Karl Rolfe, divisional officer, was among the crews at the scene of the fire on the fifteenth floor.

He said: "The flat itself is fire and smoke damaged and the smoke has travelled throughout that floor.

"Unfortunately there has also been some water damage. The dry riser is a six inch pipe that is meant to carry water up the building but someone had left the valve open on the tenth floor so there has been water damage. It is one of the risks here with vandalism and so on.

"We used a 45mm jet to extinguish the fire and a total of eight breathing apparatuses."

Five fire engines went to the fire along with a control unit from Felixstowe and the turntable ladder, which is required under the risk assessment.

Mr Rolfe added: "There is only one staircase and two lifts. The lifts are sometimes out of commission so we do not trust the lifts.

"The crews have to climb all the stairs in breathing apparatuses so they get punished quite hard."

Once the fire had been extinguished at about 7.05pm the floors affected by the fire were ventilated.

No one needed rescuing in the blaze and no one was injured.

A police spokesman said that the building did not need to be evacuated.