A man in his 30s was taken to King George Hospital last night with “fairly severe” burns after throwing water on a saucepan fire.

Firefighters were called to a home in Hampton Road, Ilford, at about 7.45pm where the man had suffered burns to his hands.

Once the pan caught ablaze, he also tried to move the pan and subsequently suffered burns to his feet.

Crew manager Andrew Watson said the ambulance service was called but after an hour, there had been no response, so a next-door neighbour took the man to hospital.

More firefighters had been called to the scene to treat the man’s injuries with gels.

An extractor fan was burnt out and there was some minor heat damage as a result of the small blaze.

Mr Watson said Ilford firefighters have seen more examples of people incorrectly dealing with chip pan fires in recent months.

The current advice is to turn off the electrical or gas supply to the fire, get out of the room and call the fire brigade.

Water should never be thrown on the fire and you should not attempt to move the pan.

Mr Watson said: “It’s a big no-no [to put water on the fire].

“We had a big campaign, we did demonstrations with a pan fire, but people have started doing it again recently.

“It’s a message we need to get across.”

The Red Watch at Ilford fire station in High Road attended three kitchen fires resulting from pans catching ablaze in the last six months of last year.

A London Ambulance Service spokesman confirmed that a call was received at 7.45pm and the man’s condition was confirmed.

The spokesman said: “We were very busy at the time and we could not send an ambulance.

“Two further calls were received before we were advised at 9pm that we were no longer required.”