THE landlord of The Greyhound in Trowbridge has told of the dramatic moment he and his 13-year-old son were rescued from a roof after fire broke out in the pub’s kitchen.

Keith Morris and his 13-year-old son Jack escaped the blaze on Friday morning by climbing through the window of their flat above the pub to safety on the roof of nearby flats.

Fire crews from Trowbridge, Devizes, Westbury and Warminster attended the blaze at8.20am last Friday morning after one of the freezers caught fire, and rescued the pair within minutes.

Keith who has been the landlord for the past five years said: “I would like to thank the fire services for their response. They must have arrived within five minutes.

“If they hadn’t arrived so quickly then things could have been so much worse.

“It was very scary being stranded on a high roof while the pub was on fire. My son found it rather traumatic, but neither of us were hurt.”

It was Keith’s son who made the crucial 999 call.

He added: “We heard the smoke alarms and I could smell something downstairs.

“I went to have a look and found the kitchen in flames, and after taking in a mouthful of smoke I thought we just need to get out.

“Jack called the emergency services and we found our way out of the building.”

After crews extinguished the fire, Mr Morris closed the pub and he and his team of staff spent the day cleaning out the kitchen which had been destroyed by the blaze.

The flames left smoke damage in the bar itself and caused major damage to his flat.

Mr Morris added: “We have completely gutted the kitchen and everyone pitched in to help.

“We were able to re-open as usual on Saturday, the day after the fire.

“Christmas is our busiest time of year so we wanted reopen as soon as possible.

“Jack is staying with a friend and I am still staying at flat, mainly for security reasons, even through it is almost destroyed upstairs.”

A spokesman from Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue said: “We received the call to a property fire.

“Crews from Trowbridge, Bradford on Avon, Westbury and Warminster responded to the incident and on arrival found a fire within the kitchen of the property.

“Two people were rescued from a flat roof of the building and four breathing apparatus wearers used two hose reel jets to extinguish the fire.

“The stop message came in at 8.58am.”