a fire negligently started by the householder. The Court of Appeal considered both common law liability and liability under the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957. The House of Lords upheld the decision of the Court of Appeal; in delivering the opinion of the House, Lord Bridge referred only to common law liability. The following extracts are taken from the speech of Lord Bridge, beginning at p 443:

My Lords, I shall refer to the parties to the appeal before your Lordships as the plaintiff and the defendant. The defendant was the occupier of a small terrace house on two floors in Hornchurch. He attempted to burn off paint from the fascia boards beneath the eaves of his house with a blow lamp and in so doing set fire to the premises. The fire brigade were called and the plaintiff, an acting leading fireman, arrived with the first fire appliance. Smoke was coming from the house, but it was impossible to locate the seat of the fire from outside. The plaintiff and a colleague entered the house wearing breathing apparatus and the usual fireman’s protective clothing and armed with a hose. In due course they located the seat of the fire in the roof space. The rafters to the rear of the house were well alight from the eaves to the ridge. The two firemen were able, with the aid of a stepladder, to squeeze through a small hatch to get into the roof space and in due course to bring the fire under control by playing their hose on it. The heat within the roof space was intense until they were able to relieve it by kicking out some of the roof tiles, as they had been trained to do in such a situation. The plaintiff, although he did not realise it until after he came down from the roof, suffered serious burn injuries to his upper body and face from scalding steam which must have penetrated his protective clothing.