Two men have been praised for their quick response after a fire in the kitchen of a restaurant near Welshpool last week.

Kevin Davies and Kieran Harris, both employees at Forden Concrete Products Ltd, were on their way to work on Friday, January 13, when they spotted the fire in the Raj restaurant’s kitchen at Forden and reported it to the fire service.

Crews from Newtown, Montgomery and Llanfair Caereinion, as well as two from Welshpool, were on the scene to deal with the blaze, which was started by an extraction tower which had blown over in the night and caused an electrical fault in the early hours of the morning.

Mr Davies was on his way to pick up Mr Harris at when he first noticed a problem at the restaurant.

He said: “At 5.45am I was driving past The Cock Hotel and saw a reflection of orange light from the kitchen door. I went to pick up Kieran and thought I need to go back and check.

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“So I drove back, parked up, took a look over the gate and saw that the kitchen was on fire.

“Kieran called the fire service and then alerted the neighbours as they were leaving for work. They then went to the owners of the building who live across the road.

“We were told someone in the building upstairs was asleep, so he was woken up and brought outside while we also looked for fire extinguishers and fire blankets, but at that point the fire service arrived.”

County Times: Fire crews arrive at the sceneFire crews arrive at the scene

Shane Clee, manager of Forden Concrete Productions Ltd, arrived on the scene after being alerted of the fire.

Mr Clee said: “I was made aware and arrived at around 6.15am. The first crew arrived at 6.30am just as the fire was taking hold with flames seen coming out the flat roof.

“It was stated that had Kevin not gone back instinctively, the loss would have been much greater.

“As the firemen started working to control the fire my lads actually went out onto the road to control the traffic for over two hours. They did this as the volume and speed of the traffic was putting the fire crew on the roadside operating pumps at risk.

“I'm very appreciative and proud of how these lads conducted themselves and helped in the way they did.”