Restaurant owner suffers burns in fire at Yen Lin restaurant in London Road, in Leicester

The owner of a Chinese restaurant was taken to hospital suffering from burns after trying to put out a fire at his premises.

The man, who has not been named, was taken to hospital with injuries to his face and arms after attempting to tackle the blaze in the kitchen at the Yen Lin restaurant in London Road, in Leicester, on Wednesday.

Five fire crews went to the building, near to the junction of St Albans Road, at 5.30pm after they received numerous calls from people who saw thick smoke coming out of the building.

Staff and customers in the Varsity pub, which is next door to the restaurant, were told to evacuate the building.

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Staff in Domino's Pizza takeaway shop, two doors away from the Yen Lin, were told to close the front door and were only allowed to use the side door.

Jon Betts, watch manager at Central fire station and incident commander, said that six people – believed to be members of the owner's family and staff – had got out of the building.

He said: "The owner of the restaurant attempted to put out the fire, which was caused by a pan of hot oil on a cooker.

"He used a fire extinguisher and in doing so suffered burns to his face and arms."

Mr Betts said the fire had spread through a ducting system into the partition walls and into a storeroom.

He said: "We managed to contain the fire to these places and put it out."

Martin Dent, assistant manager at Domino's Pizza, said he was ordered to close the front door of the shop by firefighters at about 6pm.

He said: "The first we knew about the fire was when a driver came back and told us there were fire engines in St Albans Street.

"Then the firefighters came in and asked us to shut our front door so they could have unobstructed access to water to fight the fire.

"We were allowed the side door open and they said we could stay in the building. We were allowed to reopen at about 7.15pm."

A member of staff at the Varsity pub said they were told to evacuate the building at about 6pm.

She said: "There was only me and another member of staff and two customers in so we just walked outside. We were allowed back in about 7.15pm."

The injured restaurant owner, who was the only casualty, was taken to Leicester Royal Infirmary.

Two fire crews from Central station, two from Eastern and one from Southern station attended the blaze.

The doors to the Len Yin restaurant were locked yesterday.

A hand-written notice on the front door said: "We are closed until further notice. We apologise for the inconvenience."